https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/22-807.html
Supreme Court docket in #22-807.
Issues:
(1) Whether the district court erred when it failed to apply the presumption of good faith and to holistically analyze South Carolina Congressional District 1 and the South Carolina General Assembly’s intent;
(2) whether the district court erred in failing to enforce the alternative-map requirement in this circumstantial case;
(3) whether the district court erred when it failed to disentangle race from politics;
(4) whether the district court erred in finding racial predominance when it never analyzed District 1’s compliance with traditional districting principles;
(5) whether the district court clearly erred in finding that the General Assembly used a racial target as a proxy for politics when the record showed only that the General Assembly was aware of race, that race and politics are highly correlated, and that the General Assembly drew districts based on election data; and
(6) whether the district court erred in upholding the intentional-discrimination claim when it never even considered whether—let alone found that—District 1 has a discriminatory effect.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments tomorrow in this case, which is the final case of the October sitting.
This case is substantially different from the Alabama redistricting case. Here the issue is not whether a second black district should be created, that would be clearly impossible to do.
Rather, this case involves around the State Legislature dividing the population of Charleston County (by race) in such a way as to ensure that no partisan Democratic district would be created.
Race was being used for partisan purposes, rather than being used as an end unto itself.
This could be another case where Roberts and Kavanaugh make the difference.
I can easily see this case going either way.