The Supreme Court said Monday that it will take up a bid by GOP legislative leaders in South Carolina to reinstate voting lines for one of the state's congressional districts that were invalidated as an unlawful racial gerrymander.
Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham represented the district for one term, and he went on to lose to Mace in 2020. Mace won reelection in November. Following an eight-day trial, a three-judge federal district court panel unanimously ruled in January that Congressional District 1 constituted an unconstitutional racial gerrymander because race was the predominant factor in the adoption of the redistricting plan.
South Carolina Republicans then turned to the Supreme Court, arguing that the lower court failed to presume the good faith of the state's General Assembly when drawing the voting lines, and the voting rights groups failed to show that race, rather than politics, explained the lines of District 1.