On May 23, 2024, the Supreme Court decided Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. This case concerned racial gerrymandering — placing voters in certain political districts based on their race to achieve a specific political result.

One would think that when a state engages in this practice, it violates the federal constitution because it discriminates based on race. This is what happened in South Carolina when the legislature moved 30,000 Black voters from one district and placed them into the state’s lone majority-Black district over 100 miles away. A three-judge district court found this violated the Fourteenth Amendment. But the US Supreme Court disagreed.

How the Supreme Court Made Racial Gerrymandering Easier in Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP
LWVUS Blog / Last Updated: August 6, 2024