JACKSON, ma’am. — Mississippi lawmakers diluted the power of Black voters by attracting too few majority-Black state House and Senate districts after the most recent census, a lawyer representing the NAACP and several residents told three federal judges on Monday.
But during opening arguments in a lawsuit over the redistricting case, an attorney representing state officials told the justices that race was not a predominant factor in how lawmakers would draw the state’s 52 Senate districts and 122 House districts in 2022.
Legislative and congressional districts are updated after each census to reflect population changes from the previous decade. Mississippi’s new legislative districts were used when all state House and Senate seats were up for vote in 2023.
The lawsuit, filed in late 2022, says lawmakers could have established four additional Black majority districts in the Senate and three more in the House of Representatives.
“This case is ultimately about Black Mississippians not having an equal opportunity to participate in the political process,” said Jennifer Nwachukwu of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
Tommie Cardin, one of the attorneys for state officials, said Mississippi cannot ignore its history of racial division, but, “The days of voter suppression and intimidation are thankfully behind us.”
Cardin said voter behavior in Mississippi is now determined by party affiliation, not race.
Three judges will hear the case without a jury. The trial is expected to last about two weeks, but it is not clear when the judges will rule.
According to the Census Bureau, Mississippi’s population is approximately 59% white and 38% black.
In the redistricting plan adopted in 2022, 15 of the 52 Senate districts and 42 of the 122 House districts are majority black. These make up 29% of Senate districts and 34% of House districts.
Historical voting patterns in Mississippi show that districts with larger populations of white residents tend to lean Republican, while districts with larger populations of black residents tend to lean Democratic.
The lawsuit does not challenge Mississippi’s four U.S. House districts. Although lawmakers adjusted these district lines to reflect population changes, three of those districts remained majority white and one remained majority black.
Lawsuits in several states have challenged the makeup of congressional or state legislative districts drawn after the 2020 census.
For example, Louisiana lawmakers in January redrew the state’s six U.S. House districts to create two black-majority districts instead of one, after a federal judge ruled that the state’s previous plan would restrict the voting power of black residents, who accounting for about a third, was diluted. of the state population. Some non-black residents have filed a lawsuit challenging the new plan.
And a federal judge ruled in early February that Louisiana lawmakers had diluted Black voting power with the state House and Senate districts they redrew in 2022.
In December, a federal judge accepted new congressional and legislative districts in Georgia that protect the benefits of the Republican Party. The judge said the creation of new majority-black districts resolved the illegal dilution of minority votes that led him to redraw the maps.