Art.
1, Sec. 2, of the U.S. Constitution requires that the U.S. House of
Representatives be reapportioned on the basis of a census held every 10
years. Federal courts have relied on the 14th Amendment's equal protection
clause to extend this requirement for decennial reapportionment to state
and local legislative districts.
Georgia Congressional Districts Redrawn in 1992
Relying on population data from the 1990 census, the Georgia General Assembly
reapportioned state congressional districts, as well as those for the state
House and Senate, in 1992. Georgia's congressional
district plan was drawn by the General Assembly under pressure from
the U.S. Justice Department for three congressional districts in Georgia
with black majorities. Subsequently, a lawsuit was filed in federal court
by several residents of Georgia's 11th
congressional district charging that the district's boundaries were
unconstitutional. Represented by Cynthia
McKinney, the 11th district stretches over 200 miles from the DeKalb-Fulton
County border to Savannah. Plaintiffs in the suit charged that the 11th
district had been intentionally drawn with the express purpose of incorporating
enough areas with black voters to assure election of a black member of
Congress from that district.
Federal Court Strikes Down 11th District
In 1994, a federal district court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and
declared that the 11th congressional district was unconstitutional. On
appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court, in June 1995, upheld the lower court's
decision, ruling that race cannot be a predominant factor in drawing district
boundaries (Miller v. Johnson, 115 S. Ct. 2475, 132 L. Ed. 2d 762).
Later, a federal district court declared Georgia's current 2d
congressional district unconstitutional for the same reason as the
11th.
Lawmakers Tackle Reapportionment at Special Session
A
special session of the Georgia General Assembly was convened in the summer
of 1995 to reapportion both congressional districts and certain state House
and Senate districts intentionally drawn to create black majorities. A
deeply divided session was able to come up with new apportionment plans
for the General Assembly, but lawmakers failed to reach agreement on new
congressional districts. This default left the three-judge federal panel
with the duty of drawing new boundaries for Georgia's 11 congressional
districts.
Federal Judges Reapportion Congressional Districts
In December 1995, two of the three judges signed an order creating a new
congressional district plan for Georgia. The court-imposed plan changed
every congressional district to some degree. A comparison
of the 1992 and 1995 congressional district maps shows minor changes in
the 5th, 7th, and 9th districts, but major changes in the 2d, 3d, 4th,
8th, and 10th districts. Gone completely was any semblance of the previous
11th district, with its components distributed to the 1st, 3d, 4th, and
10th districts.
Under the 1992 plan, some congressional districts were drawn without regard
to county boundaries. This meant that a number of Georgia counties fell
into two different congressional districts, and a few into three different
districts. Under the federal court plan, however, only six
Georgia counties--all in the densely populated Atlanta metro area--fell
in two or more different congressional districts.
Majority-Black Districts Reduced
The most controversial aspect of the court-imposed redistricting plan involved
the very issue that most deeply divided the 1995 special session--how many
majority-black districts Georgia would have. The 1992 plan pushed by the
Justice Department involved strangely shaped districts fashioned to incorporate
areas of black voters--regardless of city or county lines--so that three
majority-black districts could be created. In 1995, however, with the U.S.
Supreme Court saying race could not be a predominant factor in district
design and taking into account the traditional "compactness" standard for
legislative districts, state lawmakers could not come up with a race-neutral
plan that allowed three majority-black districts. In fact, by the end of
the acrimonious special session, some legislators had concluded that it
was impossible to fashion even two majority-black districts. So the matter
devolved onto federal district court to settle
Under the court reapportionment plan, only one congressional district--the
5th, represented by John
Lewis of Atlanta--had a majority black constituency. Two new districts
contained a voting-age population at least 35 percent black, and seven
new districts had at least 22 percent black voters.
Shortly after the decision, opponents sought an injunction from the
U.S. Supreme Court to prevent use of the new congressional districting
plan until the high court could rule on an appeal of the lower court's
decision. On February 6, 1996, the justices denied the injunction and qualifying
for 1996 congressional elections proceeded based on the new plan.
Subsequently, the Justice Department and several black voters appealed
the case directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. On May 20, 1996, the court
agreed to rule on the constitutionality of the lower court's decisions
in the congressional and state legislative reapportionment cases of Abrams
et al. v. Johnson et al. (95-1425) and U.S. v. Johnson et al. (95-1460).
Without commenting on the cases, the court's two-sentence order stated:
"In these cases probably jurisdiction is noted. The cases are consolidated
and a total of one hour is allotted for oral argument."
Because the high court's review will not come until next term, the lower
court's reapportionment plan will stand for Georgia's 1996 primary and
general elections.
Dramatic Changes in 10th District Boundaries
The
new districting plan for Congress affected the University of Georgia (and
many of its faculty and staff) because Clarke and all contiguous counties
(except Oglethorpe) were moved from the 10th district to a new
11th Congressional District. The new 11th picked up Rockdale County
and a larger portion of Gwinnett, while losing Oglethorpe, Elbert, Wilkes,
Lincoln, McDuffie, Columbia, and portions of Richmond.
Georgia's 1996 Congressional Elections
For those who thought that racial composition of congressional districts
would determine the race of the victor, the 1996 primary and general elections
proved that this was not necessarily so. Black incumbents Sanford Bishop
and Cynthia McKinney beat white challengers in the November 1996 general
election by fairly comfortable margins of victory. This accomplishment
would not go unnoticed by the U.S. Supreme Court when it finally ruled
on the challenge to the federal district court's reapportionment plan for
Georgia congressional districts.
U.S. Supreme Court Finally Rules
On June 19, 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court finally announced its decision
in the case of Abrams v. Johnson. In a 5-4 decision, the majority of the
Justices upheld the federal district court plan. Justice Kennedy (on behalf
of himself, Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, and Thomas) wrote the majority
opinion in which he indicated that there were not sufficient concentrations
of blacks in Georgia to fashion a 2d or 3d majority-black district without
making race an overriding consideration to the exclusion of other important
factors that bear on district boundaries. Justice Breyer (on behalf of
himself, Stevens, Souter, and Ginsburg) filed a dissenting
opinion which held that a second majority black district could and
should have been created.
Barring a change in the composition of the court and a subsequent legal
challenge in Georgia, Georgia's current congresional district boundaries
should be intact until the General Assembly again tackles reapportionment
in 2002.
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