Georgia redistricting tests if the Voting Rights Act protects 'coalition districts'

Anthony Pacheco, left, and James Woo work at the nonprofit Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta.

NORCROSS, Ga. — Anthony Pacheco is Latino, but for the last several years he has worked as a community organizer at the nonprofit Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta.

More than once, people have asked him why.

"I see a lot of parallels between Latinx communities and Asian American communities here in Gwinnett County," Pacheco says, in a conference room just off the main hall of the public library, where the shelves are lined with books in Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean and Mandarin.

Pacheco says Gwinnett County is a place where many cultures mesh. "Where I get my haircut, it's a Vietnamese place," he says.

This week, about 20 miles southwest at the federal courthouse in Atlanta, a judge is considering whether the federal Voting Rights Act protects communities like this one — so-called "coalition districts" where together, Black, Latino and Asian American voters form a majority.

The fight over Georgia's political maps has already had several steps. After the judge in October found the maps illegally diluted the power of Black voters, Republican lawmakers were forced to revise the district lines to add new, majority-Black districts.

But the Republican majority preserved its overall partisan advantage in U.S. House seats by dismantling the congressional district covering most of Gwinnett County, prompting outcry from plaintiffs and Democrats.

Last year in that district, a coalition of Black, Latino and Asian American voters helped elect a Black Democrat, Lucy McBath, to Congress.

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Pacheco says many Asian American and Latino voters here share common policy interests like immigration reform and access to language services.

"I remember growing up, first generation American, and I'm 8, 9 years old, helping my mom translate her bills, setting up doctor's appointments," Pacheco says.

"I went through a similar experience," says James Woo, a colleague at Asian Americans Advancing Justice. "I came here when I was 10, but my parents came when I was in college. Their language was always limited, so I had to be the manager of the beauty supply store."

Are "minority opportunity" districts protected?

When U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ordered Georgia lawmakers to add new majority-Black districts, he also warned them against dismantling "minority opportunity" districts elsewhere.

Republicans and Democrats disagree about what the judge meant.

"The only minority they were talking about in this case was Black voters. That was it," said state Rep. Rob Leverett, one of the chairs of Georgia's Republican-controlled redistricting process.

"This notion that we're throwing plans up here that cavalierly don't comply with the order is just particularly offensive," Leverett said before the maps passed along party lines during a special session this month.

Georgia GOP state Rep. Rob Leverett speaks on the House floor before a Dec. 7 vote on a redistricting bill. Matthew Pearson/WABE hide caption

Georgia GOP state Rep. Rob Leverett speaks on the House floor before a Dec. 7 vote on a redistricting bill.

"The fact that the General Assembly added the required majority-Black districts while not substantially increasing Democratic performance is apparently why Plaintiffs object to the plans," the state wrote in a brief.

Democrats, and the civil and religious groups who first sued over Georgia's maps, say the revised districts violate the judge's order and are asking for an independent, special master to draw the maps, like in Alabama.

"The General Assembly's purported remedy makes a mockery of that process, the court's ruling, and the Voting Rights Act, and reflects the state's continued refusal to afford minority voters equal opportunity to participate in the electoral process," the plaintiffs' attorneys wrote.

One way Democrats say Republicans have done that is by eliminating some districts where multiple minority groups — not just one — comprise a majority.

But federal appeals courts have split on whether the Voting Rights Act even protects "coalition districts."

For example the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Georgia, has previously found that the act protects coalition districts. But the 6th Circuit has ruled the other way, and the 5th Circuit agreed to take up the issue next year in a case about local maps in Galveston, Texas.

The U.S. Supreme Court has not weighed in — yet.