Supreme Court rules 5-4 in Miller v. Johnson that race cannot be the predominant factor in drawing districts

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Miller v. Johnson that Georgia used race as the predominant factor in drawing its 11th Congressional District, an irregularly shaped district stretching 260 miles from Atlanta to the Atlantic, violating the Equal Protection Clause. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that plaintiffs must show race predominated over traditional redistricting principles, triggering strict scrutiny. The ruling struck down a DOJ policy of maximizing the number of majority-minority districts and put the post-1992 wave of majority-Black Southern districts on uncertain constitutional footing.