Obama-Appointed Judge Hands Major Victory to GOP in 2024 Battleground State

A federal judge upheld Georgia’s new GOP-drawn congressional and legislative maps over objections from Democrats.

Lawmakers redrew the maps after District Court Judge Steve Jones, an Obama appointee, ruled in October that they diluted the minority vote in violation of the Voting Rights Act.

Jones wrote in a Thursday order that the additional black-majority districts included in the new maps solved the vote dilution problem.

Republicans reconfigured existing districts to protect their majority advantage.

The new maps modified districts currently held by Democrats, such as Rep. Lucy McBath’s district, where minority voters do not comprise a majority, according to The Associated Press.

“Redistricting decisions by a legislative body with an eye toward securing partisan advantage does not alone violate [the Voting Rights Act],” Jones wrote in his Thursday order.

“In fact, the Supreme Court has expressly stated that federal judges have no license to reallocate political power between the two major political parties, given the lack of constitutional authority and the absence of legal standards to direct such decisions.”