The Supreme Court struck down Alabama’s redrawn congressional map Thursday as being racially discriminatory—with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining the court’s liberal justices—affirming a ruling against the state and preserving the Voting Rights Act’s protections against diluting Black residents’ votes despite critics fearing the conservative-leaning court would uphold the map and deal a blow to voting rights.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall speaks to members of the press after oral arguments in ... [+]
Allen v. Milligan concerns Alabama’s redrawn congressional voting map, which only has one majority-Black district and was struck down by a lower court as being racially discriminatory and violating the Voting Rights Act, because it spread out and diluted Black residents’ votes outside of that district.
The Supreme Court affirmed that lower court ruling in a 5-4 ruling after previously temporarily reversing it, ruling in February 2022 that the legislature-drawn map with only one majority-Black district should stay in place for the 2022 elections until the high court ruled on the case.
The court’s ruling leaves in place section two of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting practices that are racially discriminatory.
27%. That’s the share of Alabama’s population that’s made up of Black residents, according to the state government. The state-drawn voting map resulted in only one of seven congressional districts being made up of primarily Black voters, covering only 14% of the state’s population and leaving the other 13% spread out through other districts. In the state’s 2022 midterms, the redrawn map resulted in only one Democratic representative being elected to the House from Alabama, which is the same as under the state’s previous congressional map.
Alabama asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the constitutionality of its congressional map in January 2022 after a three-judge panel in a lower court—including two appointed by former President Donald Trump—struck down the state’s congressional map and ordered a map be drawn that had two majority-Black districts. The court’s ruling is the latest in a string of cases before the court over the past decade that have concerned the Voting Rights Act. The 2013 case Shelby County v. Holder struck down the law’s fourth section, and the court further limited the law’s scope with Abbott v. Perez in 2018 and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee in 2021, which also concerned the Voting Rights Act’s second section and made it easier to impose restrictive voting laws.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
Allen v. Milligan: Gerrymandering at the Supreme Court (Brennan Center for Justice)