The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for April 1, 2024
Today’s Script
(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
Three federal court actions last week in South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida cases let stand racially-gerrymandered maps diluting Black voting power. Those diluted maps neutralize the voice of Black voters in those districts for 2024.
The majority minority North Florida 5th Congressional district was reconfigured by a map proposed by Governor Ron DeSantis into a white majority district. That map was later struck down by a lower federal court. Democracy Docket reports that March 27th, a federal district judge held that the plaintiffs did not prove Florida legislators intended to racially gerrymander the maps, and dismissed the case. A Florida Supreme Court case is still pending.
Also March 27th, a federal appeals panel affirmed a decision over a new North Carolina Senate district which dismantled a former majority minority opportunity district. The majority of the panel said it was too close to the election, and allowed it to stay through November 2024.
A U.S. Supreme Court case from South Carolina STILL doesn’t have an opinion. So with the June 11th state primary imminent, a lower court allowed a Congressional map diluting Black voting power to be used for 2024. The legislature had argued that it didn’t racially gerrymander, it gerrymandered for partisan reasons, which SCOTUS ruled in 2019 was an inherently state political issue.
We have links to the decisions at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
Democracy Docket – Federal Court Upholds Florida’s Congressional Map That Eliminated Historically-Black District
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA (via Democracy Docket) – Decision in Common Cause Florida v. Byrd
Democracy Docket – 4th Circuit Declines to Block New North Carolina Senate Map for 2024 Elections
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT (via Democracy Docket) – Decision in Pierce v. North Carolina Board of Elections
Democracy Docket – South Carolina Will Use Gerrymandered Congressional Map in 2024, District Court Rules
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA (via Democracy Docket) – Decision in South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP v. Alexander
Groups Taking Action:
South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, Common Cause Florida, Common Cause NC, NAACP Legal Defense Fund
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