Supreme Court backs GOP-drawn South Car­oli­na con­gres­sion­al map

The Supreme Court ruled on Thurs­day that a South Car­oli­na con­gres­sion­al map accused of racial ger­ry­man­der­ing can stand, revers­ing a dis­trict court deci­sion that struck down the lines for Rep. Nan­cy Mace‘s (R‑SC) dis­trict.
Jus­tice Samuel Ali­to wrote the 6–3 deci­sion in Alexan­der v. South Car­oli­na State Con­fer­ence of the NAACP, find­ing that South Carolina’s Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict 1 did not vio­late the Con­sti­tu­tion when the state’s Repub­li­can-con­trolled leg­is­la­ture enact­ed the map to ensure the dis­trict remained safe for Repub­li­cans.

State Sen. Dick Har­pootlian com­pares his pro­posed map of U.S. House dis­tricts drawn with 2020 U.S. cen­sus data to a plan sup­port­ed by Repub­li­cans on Jan. 20, 2022, in Colum­bia, South Car­oli­na. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Ali­to wrote that the high court has nav­i­gat­ed the ten­sion that results when there is a high cor­re­la­tion between race and par­ti­san pref­er­ence “by endors­ing tw …