The History of Redistricting In Georgia

In his memoirs, Chief Justice Earl Warren singled outthe redistrictingcases as the most significant decisions ofhis tenure on the Court., A review of the changesredistricting introduced in Georgia supports Warren'sassessment. Not only have the obligations to equalizepopulations across districts and to do so in a racially fairmanner transformed the makeup of the state's collegialbodies, Georgia has provided the setting for multiple casesthat have defined the requirements to be met whendesigning districts.Other than the very first adjustments that occurred inthe 1960s, changes in Georgia plans had to secureapproval from the federal government pursuant to theVoting Rights Act. Also, the first four decades of theRedistricting Revolution occurred with a Democraticlegislature and governor in place. Not surprisingly, thepartisansin control of redistrictingsought to protect theirown and as that became difficult they employed moreextreme measures.When in the minority, Republicans had no chance toenact plans on their own. Beginning in the 1980s andpeaking a decade later, Republicans joined forces withblack Democrats to devise alternatives to the proposals ofwhite Democrats. The biracial,bipartisancoalition neverhad sufficient numbers to enact its ideas. After strikingout in the legislature,African-Americans appealed to theU.S. Attorney General alleging that the plans enactedwere less favorable to black interests than alternatives offered by the coalition. Every iteration,save for the plansdrawn in the 1960s and 2011, bore the marks of what theDepartment of Justice (DOJ)believed necessary to secureequal treatment of African-Americans. As will becomeclear in the course of this Article, the DOJ's perspectivehas changed over time.This Article is arrangedchronologically and examineseach of the major rounds of redistricting. Aside fromadjusting for population shifts, which remain constant, adifferent concern or theme dominated each round. In the1960s, Georgia and other states were like individuals whohad begun flexing long-ignored muscles as they set aboutadjusting lines that had gone unchanged for decades. Inthe 1970s, as the need for redistricting merged withdemands from the Voting Rights Act, pushback occurredas it did in the many other aspects of racial interactionasthe nation finally began to take seriously its commitmentto equality. A decade later, Georgia encountered a DOJthat had precise quantitative goals for what wasnecessary to provide African-Americans an opportunity toelect their preferences. In the 1990s, DOJ incorporatedSection 2 of the Voting Rights Act into its preclearancereviews and demanded that Georgia enhance the numberof majority-black districts and that it maximize the blackpercentage in those districts. The turn of the new centuryfound the generations-longDemocratic control of Georgiaslipping away and the majority party pulled out all thestops desperately trying to cling to power. Democraticefforts could not withstand the tide of partisanrealignment and court challenges so that in 2011Republicans sat at the computer terminals andredistrictedGeorgia. Republicans attempted to maximizetheir control over the legislature by devising plans thatmight produce super-majorities with two-thirds of theseats in each chamber