Attorneys argue over whether Mississippi legislative maps dilute Black voting power

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators diluted the power of Black voters by drawing too few majority-Black state House and Senate districts after the most recent Census, an attorney representing the NAACP and several residents told three federal judges Monday.

But during opening arguments in a trial of the redistricting case, an attorney representing state officials told the judges that race was not a predominant factor in how legislators drew the state’s 52 Senate districts and 122 House districts in 2022.

Legislative and congressional districts are updated after each Census to reflect population changes from the previous decade. Mississippi’s new legislative districts were used when all of the state House and Senate seats were on the ballot in 2023.

The lawsuit, which was filed in late 2022, says legislators could have drawn four additional majority-Black districts in the Senate and three additional ones in the House.

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“This case is ultimately about Black Mississippians not having an equal opportunity to participate