Communities of interest and minority districting after Miller v. Johnson

• Published in: Political geography Vol. 17; no. 6; pp. 683 - 699
• Main Author: Leib, Jonathan I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.08.1998; Butterworth-Heinemann
• Subjects: Bgi / Prodig; Civil Rights; communities of interest; Community; CONFLICT; Culture; Discrimination; District; Human geography; LAW AND LEGAL SYSTEMS; Minorities; MINORITY GROUPS; minority voting rights; Political and economic geography; Political geography; redistricting; Segregation; U.S.A; United States; Voting; United States of America; Georgia (USA); communities of interest; redistricting; minority voting rights; Political geography; Administrative division; Electoral district; Minority; Community; Ethnic group
• ISSN: 0962-6298; 1873-5096
• DOI: 10.1016/S0962-6298(97)00032-2

The 1990s have witnessed growing controversy over the issues of minority districting and representation. These controversies have revolved around competing conceptions of the community of interest standard in redistricting. One conception, the transcendent community of interest, suggests that minority groups, in and of themselves, represent a community of interest that transcends space as a result of the group's shared history, culture and legacy of discrimination and segregation. A second view, the traditional geographic community of interest, defines the concept as a formal and/or functional region which can cut across racial and ethnic group divisions. In the early 1990s, the US Department of Justice displayed the transcendent community of interest concept in maximizing majority-minority districts across the South. In the mid-1990s, however, the US Supreme Court and Federal District Courts in invalidating some of these districts have strongly enunciated the traditional geographic conception. This article examines these issues and their potential impact on minority districting and representation by examining the case of Georgia, subject of the US Supreme Court's June 1995 decision in Miller v. Johnson which declared Georgia's 11th congressional district unconstitutional. The last part of the article considers the future impact of this decision by examining how Georgia's congressional districts were redrawn by a Federal District Court in December 1995 based on the concept of traditional, geographic community of interest districts.