South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has submitted a friend-of-the-court brief to the Supreme Court of the United States, representing 22 states in support of state authority over drawing voting districts. The brief addresses a case involving Texas’s recently redrawn voting districts, which were invalidated by a federal court.
“This case is important to the state of South Carolina, and, in fact, the very first words of our brief cite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in a recent South Carolina case, saying, ‘Redistricting constitutes a traditional domain of state legislative authority,’” said Attorney General Wilson. “When the district court ruled against the new Texas voting map, it ignored the Court’s precedent in that South Carolina case, Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. We’re fighting to make sure that South Carolina controls drawing South Carolina’s voting districts, as the Supreme Court ruled it should.”
The Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP decision established that plaintiffs alleging racial gerrymandering must propose an alternative map that could meet legislative goals without considering race. In the Texas dispute, plaintiffs did not present such an alternative and argued it was not possible at this point.
The group of attorneys general acknowledged that racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional and that states are prohibited from sorting voters solely by race. They noted complications arise because political affiliation and race can overlap; maps drawn for political reasons may resemble those based on race. The Supreme Court’s requirement for an alternative map was described as a practical solution to distinguish between these motivations.
Attorney General Wilson was joined in filing the brief by attorneys general from Missouri, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.
You can read the brief here.
