On June 3, the U.S. Supreme Court brought back to life a lawsuit challenging the boundaries of a congressional district in Arkansas. Critics argue that these boundaries unlawfully weaken the voting power of African American voters.
Days after dismissing a claim that a congressional district in South Carolina was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, the court issued this ruling.
This ruling sends the case back to a lower court and follows the Supreme Court’s recent tightening of the rules for pursuing claims of racial gerrymandering. The highest court in the nation instructed the lower court to review its decision in light of last month’s ruling.
The main petitioner in the case was Jackie Williams Simpson, an African American voter, while the respondent was John Thurston, the Republican secretary of state for Arkansas.
The ruling sends the case back to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, where it was previously thrown out on May 25, 2023.
A three-judge panel from the district court dismissed the challengers’ claim that the electoral map violated Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act, which bars discriminatory voting practices based on race, color, or language minority status.
Alabama had previously sought