South Carolina Conference of the NAACP v. McMaster

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit on Oct. 12, 2021, challenging the South Carolina Legislature’s unnecessary delay in drawing new redistricting maps that respect the constitutional one-person-one-vote principle.

The case was brought on behalf of the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and individual voters, who are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of South Carolina, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), Boroughs Bryant LLC, and Arnold & Porter.

At issue is the state Legislature’s decision to adjourn this fall without first convening to propose, consider, and pass new maps that correct for South Carolina’s outdated, severely malapportioned congressional and state legislative districts. South Carolina’s maps have been litigated every decade since 1970 — in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, the 2000s, and the 2010s — and each time it took several months for the court to hear the cases. Knowing this, the Legislature adjourned anyway.