The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Alabama’s attempt to restore a Republican-backed political map that safeguarded only one majority-Black district, buoying the legal hopes of Georgia Democrats challenging the state’s 2021 redistricting on similar grounds.
The court’s decision followed a surprise ruling in June that reaffirmed a landmark civil rights law in finding that Republican lawmakers in Alabama diluted Black voting power. Plaintiffs contesting Georgia’s maps recently wrapped up a two-week federal trial, arguing lawmakers’ redrawing of U.S. House district lines in northern metro Atlanta had a similar effect.
The new boundaries contributed to Republicans gaining one seat in the state’s congressional delegation in the 2022 election. The changes were so overt that the then-U.S. House member from the 6th District, Democrat Rep. Lucy McBath, ran for — and won — the seat in a neighboring, more left-leaning district rather than seek reelection in the gerrymandered 6th.
McBath and other Democrats are already maneuvering to compete in otherwise safe GOP districts in the north Atlanta suburbs in case the lines are overhauled again. McBath, a Marietta resident, could return to the 6th District if the seat is redrawn.
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TIME RUNNING OUT. Republicans moved appropriations bills onto the U.S. House floor on Tuesday, over the objections of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome. And the Senate, in a bipartisan fashion, forwarded stopgap legislation to avoid, or put a quick end, to any federal shutdown.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that the two chambers are not working together and that there is no clear plan to avoid a shutdown after funding runs out on Saturday.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he will introduce his own temporary funding proposal. The California Republican’s version will cut government funding and include border security language.
The Senate’s plan is a continuing resolution that keeps government funding at current levels through Nov. 17. The bill also includes roughly $6 billion for Ukraine and another $6 billion in disaster aid. The vote Tuesday to advance the measure was 77 to 19, with 28 Republicans joining Democrats in backing the proposal.
House Republicans said the Senate proposal is a nonstarter in that chamber.
The Democratic-controlled Senate gives a similarly chilly reception to the House budget bills. Chamber leaders have already said they won’t pass the measures in their current form.
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Credit: John Spink/AJC
Credit: John Spink/AJC
SHUTDOWN PREP. With time running out and no agreement in place to fund the federal government beyond Saturday, you may be curious what happens if there is a shutdown.
Tia Mitchell and James Salzer offer a comprehensive overview of how Georgia would be affected. Members of the military and other federal employees deemed essential would be required to work for free while others are sent home without pay. National parks could be shuttered, and it could take longer to access federal services or get someone on the phone at agencies like Veterans Affairs and the IRS.
A federal shutdown also could make air travel even more painful, the AJC’s Kelly Yamanouchi reports.
The potential of a shutdown has already caused the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta to switch up its planned celebration of the former president’s 99th birthday. In Carter’s hometown of Plains, there is uncertainty over whether the birthday events scheduled for Sunday can happen.
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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
YOUTH VOTE. Vice President Kamala Harris’ college tour made a stop in Atlanta on Tuesday, and she used the opportunity to emphasize abortion rights and gun violence prevention.
The AJC’s Vanessa McCray and Auzzy Byrdsell write that a crowd of hundreds of students from the Atlanta University Center greeted Harris.
She blasted conservative politicians who are attempting to remove diversity, equity and inclusion programs, ban books and offer their own versions of history.
“We really are in a fight, including the fight for the freedom to be taught America’s full history,” Harris told the crowd. “They are trying to distract us, they are trying to divide our country.”
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona spoke before the vice president.
So did Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, whose short remarks were met with boos from the audience because of his support for construction of a public safety training center. The smattering of jeers prompted an emcee to ask the crowd to show respect to officials.
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Credit: David Barnes/AJC
Credit: David Barnes/AJC
CARR TALK. Vice President Kamala Harris addressed voting rights during her Morehouse College visit on Tuesday, telling students, “There are people who are intentionally trying to make it more difficult for you to vote. There are others who are suggesting that your vote doesn’t matter.”
That drew an unusual rebuke from Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who scolded the vice president on social media and brought up Democrat Stacey Abrams in the process.
“You know this isn’t true @vp. Why do you continue to perpetuate the lies spread by your rival @staceyabrams?” Carr wrote. The Republican AG added that the Justice Department should drop its “frivolous lawsuit” over Georgia’s 2021 election overhaul legislation, SB 202.
Why bring Abrams into it? Carr’s office is not only defending SB 202 in the courts, he’s reaching out to GOP donors ahead of a likely run for Georgia governor in 2026, a race Abrams has not ruled out. Abrams, a Democrat, has lost the last two gubernatorial elections.
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DICKENS RESPONDS. Speaking of the proposed public safety training center, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens responded Tuesday to a letter from U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock expressing concerns about the referendum process. Warnock, D-Ga., pressed Dickens for information about the city’s plans to evaluate petitions and validate the signatures of those calling for a ballot measure.
In the 11-page response, Dickens defended the city’s decision-making in the face of a rarely-used citizen referendum initiative and said the process “is difficult because it should only be used in extraordinary circumstances,” the AJC’s Riley Bunch reports.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
“People have spoken, but we have a duty to review these petitions and ensure that it is Atlantans who are speaking for Atlanta,” the mayor wrote.
His letter did not reference the legal position the city has taken in court. Attorneys assert the referendum process is “invalid” and that a vote can’t overturn the project, regardless of how many signatures are collected via petitions.
The public safety training center is already under construction.
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Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
TRAINING DILEMMA. At the Atlanta Police Foundation’s annual breakfast this week, Gov. Brian Kemp reinforced his support for the proposed public safety training center and repeated his challenge to Democrats to back the project.
Embedded in Kemp’s speech was a plea for another group to give Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens more support: the corporate and civic community.
“If only politicians and private leaders in our capital city had the same courage that these men and women do,” Kemp said after extolling law enforcement officers.
“It’s time for all of our elected officials and business leaders to stand up and say for the record whether they support the training center and our law enforcement or not.”
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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden is in San Francisco for a meeting with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. He’ll also host campaign fundraising events.
- The U.S. House considers four appropriations bills.
- The U.S. Senate has no votes scheduled while leaders work on an agreement to move stopgap government funding legislation more quickly.
- U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., receives the John Lewis Lifetime Legacy Award during the March on Washington Film Festival’s Annual Awards Gala.
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Credit: Andrew Seng/The New York Times
Credit: Andrew Seng/The New York Times
TIME TO GO. Add Georgia’s U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to the list of Senate Democrats calling on New Jersey’s senior Democratic senator, Bob Menendez, to resign.
Menendez and his wife were charged last week with multiple felonies for bribery, conspiracy and extortion. A detailed federal indictment included photographs of gold bars, piles of cash and a Mercedes convertible that officials say the couple received for actions the senator took as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In a statement, Warnock said Menendez is innocent until proven guilty, but “for the good of public trust in our institutions and democracy, he should step aside and resign.”
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VALDOSTA MONUMENT. The Valdosta City Hall grounds now feature a newly christened monument, Doors to Freedom, a tribute to the underground railroad. City officials unveiled the series of sculptures last week after five years of work.
The memorial honors those who escaped slavery prior to the Civil War as well as those who assisted them along the way by participating in the underground railroad. The monument is a series of five doors of increasing size.
According to a report in the Valdosta Daily Times, the artist, Steven Walker, and his wife Evelyn Davis-Walker said on the unveiling program that the piece was “inspired by those that bravely went in search of freedom and to those who opened their doors to welcome them.”
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PERSONNEL NEWS. Hayley Howell Satterfield has joined Fralick Bozeman Public Affairs as a senior vice president of government affairs. Satterfield, who accepted the new position in July, was a former legislative liaison for Gov. Nathan Deal’s administration.
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DOG OF THE DAY. Today’s Dog of the Day submission came in under the subject line, “Dog of the Century.”
So we had to see Jib, the Labrador-border collie mix who calls Jolt readers Andrew Gobeil and Kathy Moore his people.
Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
Despite his nautically themed name, Jib is mostly landlocked in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward, where we’re told he still gets to swim, play fetch and give skateboarders on the Beltline a piece of his mind.
We like the cut of your jib, Jib. You’re our Dog of the Day! And come back in a few years for that Dog of the Century decision.
Send us your dogs of any political persuasion and location, and cats on a cat-by-cat basis, to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, or DM us at @MurphyAJC.
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AS ALWAYS, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to adam.vanbrimmer@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
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