Civil Rights Lawsuit: Disband Predominantly White Georgia Cities

No, this isn't an April Fool's joke:

The Georgia Legislative Black Caucus filed a lawsuit Monday against the state of Georgia seeking to dissolve the city charters of Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, Milton and Chattahoochee Hills. Further, the lawmakers, joined by civil rights leader the Rev. Joseph Lowery, aim to dash any hopes of a Milton County.

The lawsuit, filed in a North Georgia U.S. District Court Monday, claims that the state circumvented the normal legislative process and set aside its own criteria when creating the “super-majority white ” cities within Fulton and DeKalb counties. The result, it argues, is to dilute minority votes in those areas, violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution.

“This suit is based on the idea that African Americans and other minorities can elect the people of their choice,” said Democratic State Sen. Vincent Fort.

The Office of the Governor and the Office of the Attorney General declined comment pending further review of the case.

Rep. Lynne Riley, R-Johns Creek, called the lawsuit “frivolous” and “disrespectful to the citizens of these cities who are most satisfied with their government.”

Riley was active in creating Sandy Springs and the subsequent cities while serving as a Fulton County commissioner.

“These jurisdictions were based on geography and nothing else,” she said. “We haven’t seen any evidence of any disadvantage based on the creation of new cities. We’ve watched the Fulton County budget continue to grow … to say there was damage done by this creation, there are no facts to support that, and I would reject it.”

Note the highlighted statement. Sen. Fort apparently believes that the Voting Rights Act means minorities can elect the people of their choice regardless of the ethnic make-up of the community, as though there's some type of minority trump card that allows them to have their way in every situation.

This is a frivolous suit.  People still have a right to freely associate with whomever they choose, and if they choose to create their own communities based on geographical factors the Voting Rights Act has no jurisdiction to stop that.

This is the kind of nonsense that occurs when you try to fix one form of discrimination by legalizing another form of discrimination.