Plaintiffs in Georgia Redistricting Lawsuit File Objections to State Legislative Maps that Fail to Remedy the Dilution of Black Voting Power

ATLANTA— Plaintiffs in Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. v. Raffensperger today submitted a court filing outlining their objections to redrawn state legislative maps that Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law last week.

A review by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Georgia, and WilmerHale, which represent the Alpha Phi Alpha plaintiffs, showed the redrawn maps do not properly meet the court’s order directing the maps to be redrawn after finding that they diluted the voting strength of Black voters and violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The order required the redrawn maps to add new majority-Black districts in specific areas of Georgia — south-metro Atlanta, west-metro Atlanta, and the area around Macon-Bibb – in order to remedy the unlawful vote dilution.

The objections state that “[t]he 2023 Proposed Plans fail to address the vote dilution found by this Court after trial. They instead perpetuate it. The Court should reject the 2023 Proposed Plans and take proper remedial action by appointing a Special Master or, in the alternative, entering Plaintiffs’ proposed maps, which outperform the State’s proposed plans on most every metric and comply with the Court’s judgment.”

The court will hold a hearing regarding the plaintiffs’ objections on December 20, 2023 at 9 a.m.