Supreme Court to review GOP’s alleged racial gerrymandering in SC district.

Supreme Court to Consider Racial Gerrymandering in South Carolina

What You Need to Know:

• The Supreme Court will consider whether the South Carolina legislature racially gerrymandered the congressional seat currently held by Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican.
• The case is significant as Republicans hold a thin majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
• Mace won her second term in 2022 with 56.4% of the popular vote, beating Democrat Annie Andrews who garnered 42.5% of the vote.
• Republicans outnumber Democrats in the state’s delegation to the U.S. House by 6 to 1.

Rep. Nancy Mace’s congressional seat is at the center of a legal battle that could have far-reaching implications. The Supreme Court will consider whether the South Carolina legislature racially gerrymandered the district, which covers the Atlantic shoreline including Charleston and Hilton Head.

The case is significant as Republicans hold a thin majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mace won her second term in 2022 with 56.4% of the popular vote, beating Democrat Annie Andrews who garnered 42.5% of the vote. In 2020, she narrowly defeated incumbent Democrat Joe Cunningham by a margin of 50.6 to 49.3 percent.

The decision to take the case came in an unsigned order on May 15 in which the court noted it had “probable jurisdiction” to hear Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, court file 22-807, an appeal against a ruling of the U.S. District Court in South Carolina. No justices dissented from the ruling. The Supreme Court did not explain why it decided to hear the case.

In January, a three-member panel of the district court ordered that a new map be drawn for South Carolina’s 1st congressional district, finding that it violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause because it had been calculated to water down the power of black voters. All members of the panel were appointed by Democrats.

The appeal was filed by South Carolina Republicans, among them Thomas Alexander, president of the South Carolina Senate, and G. Murrell Smith. Mace hopes that the Supreme Court will do what’s best for the people of South Carolina’s coast.

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