[1] Before the 2020 United States Census, South Carolina's 1st Congressional District was seen as a swing district, being won by Democrat Joe Cunningham in an upset against Republican Katie Arrington in 2018 and then incumbent Republican representative Nancy Mace in 2020, both times by small margins, and between 1 and 1.5 percentage points between the winner and runner-up.

[5] Multiple plaintiffs, including the South Carolina ACLU, and South Carolina NAACP, sued the stating that the congressional map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as well as the Fifteenth Amendment.

The majority opinion in the 6–3 case, decided along the Court's ideological lines, was authored by Justice Samuel Alito.

Alito's opinion determined that the defendants had not shown sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the state legislature had used racial factors to determine the new map; instead, because their goals had been to affect partisan leanings within the Charleston district, the court system does not have jurisdiction on such matters.

"[24] Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurrence that went further than the majority and argued that federal courts do not have authority to order new legislative maps even for valid claims of racial gerrymandering.

[25] Thomas argued that "[t]hat understanding may have justified temporary measures to 'overcome the widespread resistance to the dictates of the Constitution' prevalent at that time, but, as a general matter, 'such extravagant uses of judicial power are at odds with the history and tradition of the equity power and the Framers' design.

'"[25] This stance was heavily criticized by journalists that believed that Thomas was seeking to enforce a race-blind Constitution and end further challenges of racial gerrymandering by the courts.