COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s highest court ruled in favor of Statehouse Republicans, saying it is a legislative right to draw congressional maps even as critics say Charleston’s seat in Congress was unfairly drawn to gerrymander.
The Sept. 17 decision rejected a case filed by South Carolina’s League of Women Voters chapter that sought to protect what the group considered a standing right for voters to participate in district lines free of political engineering.
The Supreme Court sided with the state, agreeing that the redrawing of the coastal 1st Congressional District map in whatever way they see fit is their right.
The seat is currently held by Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, who is also running as a gubernatorial candidate, and stretches from Charleston to Beaufort.
Republican leaders welcomed the decision and also hinted that the results help ensure that no mid-decade redraw of the state’s seven congressional districts is necessary or should be pursued next year, like red states Texas and Missouri have done, and like what some arch-conservatives in S.C. want to see happen here.
Republicans hold six of the state’s seven seats in Congress, with Democrat Jim Clyburn the lone blue representative in D.C.
“When Republicans drew new maps just a few years ago, we worked hard to ensure that South Carolina’s districts reflected the politics of South Carolina’s voters,” a statement from Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey read.
“If the ACLU and the League of Women Voters aren’t happy with the results at the ballot box, maybe they should ditch their far-left positions, like gender-transitions for children, and get in step with South Carolina values,” he added.
The Senate GOP statement further read “while numerous red states hurry to undergo mid-decade redistricting, South Carolina rests easy knowing Republican Senators finished the job following the 2020 census.”
The court heard arguments for the case in June where attorneys for the state said there was no legal restriction on lawmakers’ ability to draw maps on a political basis.
The ACLU cited a constitutional provision and said the lawmaker’s were diluting the influence of Democratic voters in the 1st District, which stretches from Charleston to Beaufort counties and also includes Dorchester and Berkeley voters. It became more Republican as a result of the new maps.
The state argued that the new map did not protect individuals’ right for their preferred candidate to win, but did protect the public’s right to participate in elections. The high court agreed, saying the Legislature has the sole authority to draw congressional districts.
The plaintiff expressed disappointment at the 5-0 ruling.
“Partisan gerrymandering is an attack on our most fundamental right as citizens, the right to vote,” said Lynn Teague, vice president at the League of Women Voters of South Carolina. “The people of our state should demand a constitution that protects them and leadership that respects their voices.”
The ACLU said the latest ruling allows lawmakers to “game” the system to “retain their own power” and ultimately “ushers in an even greater entrenchment of political extremism.”
In the Sept. 17 decision S.C. Chief Justice John Kittredge did note the court holds that partisan gerrymandering claims present a political question that is beyond the court’s authority to decide even as they may prove troubling.
“(We) are seeing — and will continue to see — state legislatures race to further minimize and perhaps erase the representation of the state’s minority political party in Congress,” he wrote. “These results may, indeed, be in line with each respective state’s constitution and laws, but they collectively have the effect of diminishing our constitutional republic as a whole.”
The path may continue in that direction. Kittredge said, unless the U.S. Supreme Court steps “back into the fray.”