L-R Beverly Martin, William Duffey and Timothy Batten ()

A rare three-judge panel in Atlanta has dramatically narrowed a federal voting rights suit that accused the Georgia General Assembly of unconstitutional racial and partisan gerrymandering in order to keep two increasingly diverse state House districts safely in Republican hands.

The panel—Beverly Martin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and U.S. District Judges William Duffey Jr. and Timothy Batten—on Aug. 25 granted the state’s motion to dismiss claims that the Republican-dominated state legislature’s 2015 decision to redraw two districts in Atlanta’s northern and southern exurbs was intended to discriminate against and dilute the minority vote in violation of the federal voting rights and civil rights laws. The panel also dismissed a second claim that the 2015 “out of cycle” redistricting also constituted political gerrymandering in violation of the 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the law.