Common Cause, the League of Women Voters of Georgia, and a group of Georgia voters, represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Dechert LLP, filed a federal lawsuit challenging Georgia’s 6th, 13th, and 14th congressional districts.  

Common Cause v. Raffensperger argues that these congressional districts violate the federal constitution and unlawfully diminishes the voting power of communities of color. The litigation describes how the newly drawn districts violate the Fourteenth Amendment by denying Black communities representation and therefore equal protection of the law. The suit also highlights the long history of the white majority in Georgia using racial discrimination to maintain political power and the persistent need for the federal government to step in to ensure maps allocate political power in a way that does not violate federal law or the Constitution.

The complaint explains how across these congressional districts, voters of color were either “packed” into districts in greater numbers to reduce their voting strength in other districts or “cracked” across multiple districts to prevent the formation of a district where voters can elect a candidate of their choice. Learn more about the complaint here. 

On February 3, 2022, this case was consolidated with Georgia State Conf. of the NAACP v. Georgia. On May 30, 2023, the three-judge panel considering this consolidated case held a hearing on the state defendants’ motion for summary judgment. On October 17, 2023, the court denied the defendants’ motions for summary judgment.

On November 1, 2023, the three-judge panel issued an order indefinitely staying the case, due to ongoing activity in parallel cases and the state legislature moving to adopt new voting maps. Read our release here.

Selected Case Filings 

• Order Issuing Stay (11/1/23)
• Opinion Denying Summary Judgment (10/26/23)
• Plaintiffs’ Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment (4/26/23) 
• Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment (3/27/23) 
• Order Scheduling Trial (3/20/23) 
• First Amended Complaint (3/30/22) 
• Order Consolidating Cases (2/3/22) 
• Order Designating Three-Judge Court (1/10/22) 
• Complaint (1/7/22)