‘How on earth did they get under a consent decree like that? It seems unconstitutional on its face.”
RNC agreed to it.
In my recollection, the RNC sent out a mailer that was targeted only to blacks that was deemed “unfair” in some form, and, rather than fight back, the RNC entered into some unholy agreement where they would stand down for a long time. The judge who over saw that agreement was a Jimmy Carter judge who recently died and he can’t continue it any longer, which was on him to continue or not.
He believed the Republicans never showed they were “nice enough” to cancel the agreement.
The RNC was pretty stupid in the 80’s.