A return to the ‘darkest days’? Supreme Court ruling overshadows Georgia elections 

By weakening the Voting Rights Act’s protections against racial discrimination, the U.S. Supreme Court put Georgia on an election-year precipice.

Republicans are calling for a special legislative session to immediately redraw districts for their benefit, hoping to build on their majorities in Congress and the Georgia General Assembly.

Democrats are mobilizing voters to win either the governor’s office or the state House, the only move that could stop their GOP rivals from gerrymandering Georgia’s districts next year.

And Black voters in one of the nation’s most politically divided states are left clinging to five U.S. House seats held by Black Democrats. Georgia’s other nine House members are white Republicans.

“This ruling harkens back to the darkest days of the Jim Crow era, when Black Americans were kept out of the rooms of power,” said Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock outside the Supreme Court. “The answer to this assault on democracy, quite frankly, is more democracy — ordinary people standing up right now and committing to voting.”

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority Wednesday limited the ability of states to consider race when drawing voting maps.

Before the Supreme Court’s ruling, Black voters could use the Voting Rights Act to sue over discriminatory political districts that reduced their voting strength. In Southern states like Georgia, federal courts used the Voting Rights Act to overturn districts drawn in 2021.

Black voters accounted for nearly all Georgia’s population growth — over 1 million new residents during the past decade — but state legislators shaped districts in a way that resulted in Democrats losing a seat in Congress during last year’s elections.

The Supreme Court decided that from now on, the Voting Rights Act only protects against provably intentional discrimination. The nation’s highest court allowed redistricting for a political party’s benefit, even if doing so reduces Black representation.

Republicans praised the decision, saying it will treat all voters equally regardless of their race.

“In a society built on equal protection of law, no state should be directed to draw legislative maps on the basis of race,” said Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican candidate for governor.

Rick Jackson, a Republican healthcare executive running for governor, also supported a special redistricting session to stop Democrats “trying to redistrict their way back to power” in other states.

With early voting underway, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday he won’t call a special session to redistrict the state, saying it’s too late to create new maps before this year’s midterms. Kemp could later ask lawmakers to adopt new district lines before the 2028 elections.

“Legislatures can now redistrict people of color out of existence in terms of their viability for voting in a way that matters, and they can say ‘We’re doing that because it helps Republicans,'” said Eric Segall, a Georgia State University constitutional law professor. “The doors are open. It depends on whether Republicans want to step through them.”

The redistricting wars have already swept up several states trying to gain political power in this year’s Congressional elections. They include Republican-run states such as Texas, Florida and Ohio along with Democratic-controlled states such as California, Virginia and Utah.

Republicans currently hold a 217-212 advantage in the House.

Gerald Griggs, former president of the Georgia NAACP, said the Supreme Court’s ruling will “hyper-partisanize” America.

“This whole setup is just a way to elect fewer people of color,” Griggs said. “They’re letting legislatures discriminate on the basis of race, but they’re calling it partisan. They’ll just redraw the maps in a way that insulates the Republican-controlled Legislature until the end of time. It’s quite depressing.”

If Republicans were to attempt to win another seat in the U.S. House, they could target Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop’s mostly rural southwest Georgia district, said University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock.

Bishop’s district is 49% Black, 40% white, 11% multiracial or other races, according to the U.S. Census estimates from the 2024 American Community Survey.

But Bullock warned that Republicans could put themselves at risk of losing a U.S. House seat instead of gaining one if they go too far during redistricting.

“If you disperse Black voters into Republican districts, then districts that are secure right now become marginal in a wave election,” Bullock said.

Democrats are hoping for that kind of surge in this year’s election that could give them the power to stop Republicans from redistricting the state in 2027.

A Democratic governor could veto any redistricting bill, or a Democratic majority in the state House or Senate could stop those kinds of bills.

Democrats would need to pick up 10 seats in the state House to gain the majority. Republicans control the chamber 99-81. In the state Senate, Republicans hold a 33-23 advantage.

“Republican efforts to discourage voters from the ballot box will only galvanize us further, and we will show up in record numbers to throw them out of office and elect Democrats up and down the ballot who will protect our fundamental rights,” said Democratic Party of Georgia Chair Charlie Bailey.

Republicans such as John F. Kennedy, a former state senator running for lieutenant governor, said the Supreme Court ruling shields Georgia voters against court-imposed political districts.

“Today’s Supreme Court decision is a victory for common sense and a long-overdue win for every Southern state forced to bend the knee to federal courts on redistricting,” Kennedy said.

Without the protections of the Voting Rights Act, historically marginalized communities will face more challenges electing people who represent them, said Bradley Heard, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s litigation team.

“The ultimate solution to any of this is people turning out to vote like their lives and their democracy depends on it,” Heard said. “I don’t think this ruling will sit well with the public.”