ATLANTA - Georgia stands as the latest Southern state where Republicans gather to adjust voting districts in a process that may reduce the sway of Black voters and other minorities of color. This follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that removed key Voting Rights Act protections once used to shape boundaries in states with diverse populations.

The General Assembly opens its special session on Wednesday after outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp called lawmakers together following the Louisiana v. Callais ruling that found Louisiana's congressional map amounted to an improper racial gerrymander.

Kemp, nearing the end of his second term, chose a different path from governors who rushed new congressional maps ahead of November midterms partly to answer President Donald Trump's call to protect Republican control of Congress. Instead the governor directed Georgia lawmakers to focus on maps for the 2028 cycle. At the same time he moved ahead of peers by directing the Republican-led Assembly to redraw its own legislative lines too.

This step positions Georgia as the first state to extend the Callais precedent to its legislature and highlights the ripple effects of the decision through Southern states that hold the largest shares of Black voters and elected officials.

The topic carries special weight in Georgia where the Capitol grounds feature a statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. just blocks from sites tied to his life and the civil rights work that produced the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Yet as of late Tuesday neither Kemp nor Republican leaders had released any proposed maps, leaving Democrats and activists preparing daily protests throughout the session.

"They have not been transparent," said state Rep. Tanya Miller, a Black lawmaker from Atlanta and the Democratic nominee for attorney general. "Something as fundamental as voters getting to choose their leaders ought not to be done in the dark or settled behind closed doors."

The governor told The Associated Press he was not prepared to share specifics.

"I'll talk about redistricting on Wednesday," Kemp said while campaigning for fellow Republicans before Tuesday's primary runoffs.

House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, experienced in prior redistricting work, described the result as "a legislative prerogative," an idea confirmed by Kemp aides. Still Jones noted that even as a senior Republican on the relevant committee she had not taken part in any map-drawing sessions.

When pressed on who was creating the new districts she answered simply: "I don't know."

Before the Callais decision Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act was read to require maps for Congress, state legislatures and local bodies that gave historically disadvantaged minorities a fair opportunity to elect preferred candidates. Across the nation and in Georgia these opportunity districts have elected a disproportionate share of Black and other nonwhite representatives.

With the Callais ruling handed down earlier this spring a conservative majority of justices held that districts drawn with race in mind discriminate and breach the Constitution's equal protection clause. The court said apportionment must remain race neutral.

The reasoning did not rest on party goals, and courts have ruled that partisan gerrymandering does not violate the Constitution. Yet in Southern states party loyalty often aligns closely with race and ethnicity. The decision therefore lets Republicans, whose voters are mostly white, redraw lines to strengthen likely GOP districts by moving nonwhite voters who usually back Democrats.

Civil rights advocates and analysts contend this reality makes genuine race neutrality impossible for Southern legislatures.

Emory University professor Carol Anderson likened Callais and the redistricting efforts to poll taxes and literacy tests once used by white Southern conservatives and upheld by the Supreme Court in the Jim Crow period.

"They used racially neutral language for policies that were clearly racially targeted," said Anderson, also a board member of Fair Fight Action, which is mobilizing against the Georgia effort.

Success is not assured for Georgia Republicans. Partisan map-drawing requires moving voters by packing them into fewer districts or splitting them across more. In metro Atlanta spreading nonwhite Democratic-leaning voters could create additional seats that lean Republican, yet it also risks producing more competitive districts as white suburban voters shift away from conservative positions and open chances for Democratic candidates.

The concern may matter less for the already Republican-favorable state Senate but could affect state House and U.S. House maps.

Kemp is effectively asking Republicans especially around metro Atlanta to redraw their own districts and adjust to new territory.

Nationally the partisan redistricting push began last year after Trump pressed Republican-led states to adjust congressional lines to protect the party's slim House majority this November. Texas acted first.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats responded with their own map later approved by voters. Other states followed. Republicans believe they could net as many as 16 House seats overall while Democrats project six gains from new maps in California and Utah.

Even so the gains may fall short of securing a lasting GOP majority given Trump's approval ratings, though the changes could limit Democratic advances and strengthen Republican positioning for 2028 and future cycles.