COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- A top South Carolina Democratic lawyer has filed a federal lawsuit that plans for U.S. House district lines "voting apartheid."
State Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian said last week that he expected to challenge lines drawn by the GOP-dominated Legislature. The U.S. Justice Department last week said it would not challenge how the districts were drawn.
Harpootlian said his clients in the case are voters affected by the new district lines. In the lawsuit he says the Legislature improperly packed more black voters into U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn's district.
South Carolina picked up a new U.S. House seat in the once-a-decade redistricting process because of population growth. The Legislature put that new district in the state's northeastern corner along the coast in an area Republicans are confident they can win.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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