Last year, the same judges said that, even before full trials were held, the same maps were so likely illegal that replacements should be used for the 2022 elections.
That did not happen: Thanks to a once-obscure Supreme Court rule that outlaws election-law changes close to campaign season, the disputed maps were used anyway.
With an electorate so deeply split along partisan lines that few House races are competitive, the significance last November was glaring.
Republicans took control of the House of Representatives by a bare five seats, three of them from districts they were poised to lose had new maps been used in the three states.
Now the revived litigation is again churning through the courts — at least six of them, at last count — with the same political stakes and a sharply divided view of the likely outcomes.
Persons:
WASHINGTON
Organizations:
Republican, Black
Locations:
Georgia , Louisiana, Alabama