Judge Lavenski Smith, chief judge of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has named the judges who will join federal District Judge James Moody in hearing the lawsuit that challenges the Arkansas redistricting of the congressional district on grounds that a gerrymander of Pulaski County into three congressional districts diluted the voting strength of Black voters who previously all voted in the 2nd Congressional District.

Smith, an Arkansan appointed to the court by a Republican president and former staff member for Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee, named Judge Price Marshall, chief judge of the Eastern District of Arkansas to the panel and 8th Circuit Judge David Stras of Minnesota. Stras is a Trump appointee whose appointment was fiercely opposed by then-Democratic Sen. Al Franken because of his extreme ideology and the Republican senators’ failure to continue the practice of honoring home state senators’ objections to nominees of the president. Marshall was an appointee of President Barack Obama.

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The redistricting is also being challenged in a separate state case. The federal case alone raised the Voting Rights Act, which offers protection against racially discriminatory redistricting. Even Republican Governor Hutchinson wouldn’t sign this legislation because of its obvious racial impact. Some 21,000 predominantly Black voters were moved out of the 2nd District and replaced by virtually all white voters from Cleburne County. Republican sponsors never offered a coherent explanation for the change in a plan originally proposed by the same sponsors.

Smith’s order directs the panel to confer and submit a report by April 28.

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