COLUMBIA, S.C. — The United States Supreme Court still does not have a decision centered around the legality of South Carolina voting districts.
It's a step without direction coming from the United States Supreme Court in the case surrounding the legality of South Carolina's district maps. Chris Kenney is an attorney in Columbia with years of experience including district maps and their validity. He says this started after the 2020 census when district maps were redrawn by South Carolina legislators. A group of citizens brought a lawsuit to the hands of federal judges in South Carolina.
"The panel here in South Carolina ruled unanimously in favor of the plaintiffs that the way in which the first and the sixth congressional districts we draw, violated the 14th amendment because they were racially gerrymandered," he says.
He says the state had a chance to change things, but declined.
"Under federal law, lawmakers ought to be given the first opportunity to fix the constitutional defect. Now, in this case, the South Carolina legislature said 'No we're not going to do that. We're going to appeal your decision to the Supreme Court," he says.
We reached out to the NAACP chapter in Columbia, one of the organizations suing in this lawsuit. President Brenda Murphy said in a statement to news19, "The court's ruling today, further delaying these proceedings, continues to tip the scale of justice during a crucial moment in our democracy in an undemocratic attempt to sway the outcome of the upcoming election."
Kenney says this decision comes at a less-than-ideal time for election commissions as they prepare for the November election.
"There are not a lot of options, in terms of conducting the 2024 election, we have candidate filing that closes in March. The election commission has to send what we call military ballots," he explains, "Those deadlines are quickly approaching, and ballots have to be prepared and those types of things."
The lack of a final decision has some voters, like Peggy Ricketts worried about how this might impact people's trust in the election.
"Maybe they'll feel like their vote won't count, or may be hard for them to even get to the voting. But I hope everybody gets out and votes because every vote counts," she says.
Kenney says he expects a decision by June but now after the Supreme Court's announcement, South Carolina voters just need to wait and see.
"The order that court handed down today basically is going to leave the constitutionally defective maps in place for the 2024 election," he adds, "it's unfortunate that we are where we are but because the US Supreme Court hasn't made up its mind, it's just sort of the reality of the situation."