Georgia state senators are advancing a new congressional map that would maintain a 9-5 GOP edge in the state's delegation. The Senate voted 32-22 to pass the plan, which seeks a wholesale reconfiguration of a suburban Atlanta district now represented by Democrat Lucy McBath.

Georgia Republicans are advancing a proposed congressional map that maintains their party's 9-5 majority in the state's congressional delegation. A Senate committee voted 7- 4 along party lines on Monday to send the map to the state Senate for more debate.

Georgia Republicans want to redraw the state's congressional districts to create a new court-ordered Black majority district while maintaining the current 9-5 Republican congressional majority. The proposal released Friday shows they are again targeting Democratic U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath's district for wholesale transformation.

In an October ruling, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ordered the legislature to draw five additional Black-majority districts in the House and two additional Black-majority districts in the Senate to accommodate increases in Georgia’s Black population in the last decade. On Friday, Republicans said their new maps honor Jones’ ruling.

Georgia lawmakers are meeting to redraw political maps after a federal judge found the current boundaries discriminate against Black voters.

The special session started with a bang Wednesday as members of the House and Senate reviewed the new legislative maps proposed by Republicans.

Elected officials and others held a community meeting of about 100 people at the Elaine Lucas Senior Center in Macon to discuss the special session of the Georgia General Assembly beginning this week.

Georgia Senate Republicans are proposing a new map that would create two new Black-majority districts in the the General Assembly's upper chamber. The new map comes after a federal judge said current congressional, state Senate and state House maps illegally dilute Black votes.

A federal appeals court ruling last week is the latest sign in a shifting national landscape limiting the ability of minority voters to challenge voting laws on claims of racial discrimination. 

Lawmakers will convene on Wednesday to re-draw Georgia's voting districts after federal Judge Steve Jones said that the current maps "dilute Black voting power."

As a federal judge has ordered Georgia to draw Black majorities in one additional congressional district, two additional state Senate districts, and five additional state House districts, white Democrats could be in peril in some cases as Republicans seek to comply with the court order and preserve as many of their own seats as possible. 

This week on Georgia in Play, host Leah Fleming looks at Georgia's impending redistricting. Plus, conversations with Savannah Mayor Van Johnson and Hidden Brain's Shankar Vedantam. We'll also look at a church's medical debt forgiveness ministry, the new Michelin Guide to Atlanta, and top bookstores around the state.

The appeal of an order requiring new congressional and state legislative political maps also postpones another trial over other redistricting claims.

Judge Steve Jones ordered Georgia lawmakers to create new legislative redistricting maps by Dec. 8 that add more majority-Black districts.

The case has been widely watched, not just because it could produce an additional Democratic House seat, but because the Fifth Circuit's actions are seen as a challenge to the high court's authority.