A.M. ATL: Inside the lines

Morning, y’all! It’s May Day, it’s a full moon, it’s a Friday. What more could you want?

Let’s get to it.

HOW THE LATEST SCOTUS RULING MAY AFFECT GA ELECTIONS

The Georgia State House Reapportionment and Redistricting committee in 2022.

This is a long one, so top off the coffee and get comfy.

First, some background

Throughout American history, people in power have devised all sorts of creative ways to retain that power while maintaining the appearance of a truly representative democracy. That’s the reason the Voting Rights Act of 1965 came about.

• Most Black Americans and other Americans of color were already guaranteed the constitutional right to vote, but some states added additional provisions such as voting tests and poll taxes that acted like loopholes, effectively disenfranchising these communities — with the help of good old-fashioned violence, threats and fraud.
• Gerrymandering, the practice of strategically redistricting areas to benefit certain candidates or parties, is another way municipalities moved the goalposts to ensure their chosen leaders scored.
• It’s still a thing today. The term gerrymandering is used, with some pejoration, to imply a partisan aim. “Redistricting” is the more neutral term.

What this has to do with Georgia

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling that could gut the part of the VRA that protects minority racial communities from vote-diluting gerrymandering.

While it’s a national issue, recent redistricting fights in Georgia mean it will be of special importance here.

• Top Republican figures in Georgia are already calling on Gov. Brian Kemp to call a special legislative session to redraw congressional and legislative lines specifically to help conservative candidates.
• In 2023, a federal judge found that Georgia’s congressional and legislative maps illegally diluted Black voting strength and ordered lawmakers to draw additional majority-Black districts.
• That’s why state GOP leaders are so keen to take another crack at the maps after the latest SCOTUS ruling.
• Any changes likely won’t affect this year’s midterm elections, but the 2028 presidential election is another story.

What the ruling said

• In this week’s ruling, the Supreme Court decided redistricting maps in Louisiana relied too heavily on race to create a second majority-Black congressional district in the state.
• The body’s reasoning was as follows: “Because the Voting Rights Act of 1965 did not require Louisiana to create an additional majority-minority district, no compelling interest justified the state’s use of race in creating SB8, and that map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

This leads to some existential questions about when redistricting is “constitutional” and when it’s not, and what constitutes a “compelling interest.”

There’s a lot more in the text of the Voting Rights Act that categorizes the relationship between race, political cohesion and voting power. Who doesn’t want to spend the weekend wading through one of the most important pieces of legislation in American history? It’ll be a real party.

🔎 READ MORE: How the Supreme Court decision could affect Georgia in 2028

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ANOTHER EXIT, STAGE LEFT

Seeing less of these babies, unfortunately. .

Yesterday, we talked about actor Josh Brolin selling his Atlanta home because there aren’t as many acting jobs in Georgia as there used to be.

Now, studio and equipment rental company Quixote announced it’s also winding down its presence in Atlanta.

• It’s part of a larger downturn in film production in the U.S. as productions seek lower-cost filming locations, increasingly outside the country. In Atlanta, some soundstage owners have sold their properties or repurposed them.
• That’s not to say Georgia’s film industry is dead. It’s just not as plush as it was. A second installment of James Gunn’s “Superman,” a Judd Apatow-Glen Powell comedy and a live-action reboot of “Scooby Doo” are all set to film in Georgia soon.

🔎 READ MORE: The state of film in ... the state

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

✍🏻 President Donald Trump signed a bill to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security, but not its immigration enforcement operations. After the partial shutdown created widespread travel mayhem in March, Trump tapped temporary funding to pay TSA and other agency workers — but that money couldn’t last forever.

⚡Atlanta-based Southern Co., the parent of Georgia Power, saw rising profits to start 2026 thanks to energy-hungry data centers in Georgia and neighboring states. Enjoy your power bill!

🚂 Union Pacific is still trying to convince regulators to approve its $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern, which would create a coast-to-coast rail system. Railroad shippers and competing railroads worry the merger would give Union Pacific monopoly power.

🐘 Mike Collins has a sizable lead over Buddy Carter and Derek Dooley in the GOP Senate primary race, according to a new AJC poll. However, more than half of voters are still undecided.

IT’S GONNA BE A SUPER WEEKEND

Racing into the weekend like ...

There’s always so much happening in early May. The Kentucky Derby is this weekend (play around with our Atlanta-themed racehorse name generator if you haven’t already), and Cinco de Mayo is right around the corner.

What you didn’t know about the Derby

I love this piece from Nedra Rhone on Kentucky Derby fashion and how Black racing (and racing fashion) aficionados are reclaiming an event with a difficult past.

In fact, did you know in the first 28 years of the Kentucky Derby, 15 of the winning jockeys were Black? Rhone explains why that changed.

What to eat, drink and do

🌮 A Derby party, Cinco de Mayo feasts and a crawfish boil headline May’s best food events.

🐲 Chalk art, a dragon boat festival and a rollicking rodeo round out 15 fun, family-friendly things to do.

NEWS BITES

Tips for making a Derby-worthy mint julep

“Stir well, slap lightly.” Well, as long as you ask permission first!

A look inside Fernbank Museum’s new Orkin Discovery Zone