U.S. Panel Rejects Majority-Black Congressional District in Georgia

A federal panel redrawing Georgia’s congressional districts formally declared a second majority-black district unconstitutional Friday.

The three judges had stated in October that they intended to declare the 2nd District illegal but did not issue an official ruling at the time. The ruling was filed in Augusta, where the panel is working on a new congressional map.

“We find that the boundary line for the district was consistently drawn to keep potential black voters in the district and to keep potential white voters out of the district,” U.S. Circuit Judge J.L. Edmonson wrote on behalf of the panel.

It was the second majority-black congressional district drawn in Georgia in 1991-92 to be declared illegal. Georgia’s 11th District was thrown out in June by the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the three-judge panel’s earlier ruling that the Legislature relied too heavily on race in redrawing it.

The panel held a two-day hearing in October on how to redraw the state’s congressional map. They took over the task after the Legislature failed to produce a new map during a five-week special session this summer.

Both the dismantled majority-black seats were drawn under pressure from the Justice Department to create three black districts. Three black seats out of 11--or 27%--matches the state’s 27% black population.

Georgia previously had only one black seat, the 5th District in Atlanta.