A panel of federal judges struck down Alabama’s latest congressional voting map on Tuesday, arguing it dilutes Black votes in the state and fails to meet protections under the Voting Rights Act, after the Supreme Court struck down a previous congressional map in June, arguing the map amounted to racial gerrymandering.
Alabama Senate President Greg Reed speaks with reporters about proposals to draw new congressional ... [+]
A three-judge panel ruled on Tuesday the new map “does not remedy” a violation of a section of the Voting Rights Act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or other minority groups.
The state’s GOP-controlled legislature had approved the congressional map in July, though that map kept the number of Black-majority districts at one, despite the Supreme Court’s order in June requiring the state to redraw the map with two districts that had Black majorities “or something quite close.”
The panel said it was “deeply troubled that the state enabled a map that the state readily admits does not provide the remedy we said federal law requires.”
Judges ruled a court-appointed special master and cartographer will draw a new map with a second Black majority district ahead of the 2024 election cycle.
The Supreme Court voted 6-3 in June, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining all three of the court’s liberal justices, to strike down Alabama’s redrawn voting map, finding it racially discriminatory and a violation of protections under the Voting Rights Act. Specifically, the court argued the map diluted the state’s Black population’s votes by spreading out Black residents over multiple districts. Alabama’s state Senate voted 24-6 on party lines in July to recommend a new map, with the state’s House voting 75-28 in favor of the map, though it only included one Black majority district, and weakened its Black majority from 56% to 51%. A second district would have had a 40% Black population under the proposed map, an increase from 30%.
Plaintiffs in the case argued in July that the map not only violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but that lawmakers in the state “continue to ignore constituents’ pleas to ensure the map is fair.” Democratic voting rights attorney Marc Elias, whose law firm represented the plaintiffs, said a new map that met the Supreme Court’s ruling could have impacts on other maps, including neighboring Georgia, as well as Louisiana, where a case over the state’s redistricting map had been paused pending the ruling in Alabama.
Supreme Court Keeps Voting Rights Act Protections—Strikes Down Redrawn Alabama Map (Forbes)
Alabama Approves New House Map With Only 1 Majority-Black District After Supreme Court Asked For 2 (Forbes)