SCOTUS: Alabama districts must be redrawn to represent Black voters
The Supreme Court on Tuesday authorized the drawing of a new congressional map of Alabama with greater representation for black voters. The new districts could also help Democrats in their efforts to flip control of the House of Representatives.
The justices, without dissent, rejected the state’s plea to uphold Republican-drawn lines rejected by a lower court.
By refusing to intervene, the Supreme Court allowed the work of a court-appointed special master to continue. On Monday, the special master introduced three proposals that would create a second congressional district where black voters would make up the majority of the voting population, or come close to it.
The redrawing of the state’s districts follows a Supreme Court decision in June that found that the state’s congressional map, which was drawn to reflect the results of the 2020 census, diminished the voting power of the state’s Black residents state watered down. The map, used in the 2022 midterm elections, had just one majority of Black districts out of seven seats in a state where Black residents make up more than a quarter of the population.
A second district with a Democratic-leaning black majority could send a new Democrat to Congress at a time when Republicans have a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives. There are also federal lawsuits over state and congressional districts pending in Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.
Deep racial divisions characterize voting in Alabama. Black voters overwhelmingly prefer Democratic candidates, while white voters prefer Republicans.
The lead plaintiff in the redistricting case, Evan Milligan, called Tuesday’s ruling a “victory for all Alabamians” and said it moves the state closer to a map that provides fair representation. “It’s definitely a very positive step,” Mr. Milligan said in a telephone interview.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office did not immediately comment on the decision.
A three-judge panel has scheduled a hearing next week on proposed plans submitted by Richard Allen, the lawyer appointed by the judges. Mr. Allen’s three proposals would change the boundaries of Congressional District 2 so that black voters make up between 48.5% and 50.1% of the voting population, a shift that could put the seat in Democratic hands.
In contrast, the district drawn by Republican lawmakers and unanimously rejected by the three justices had a black voting age population of 39.9%, meaning it would continue to elect mostly white Republicans, according to data simulations by those challenging the Republican plan.
The justices said Alabama lawmakers deliberately defied their directive to create a second district where black voters could influence or determine the outcome.
Mr. Milligan and other black voters had argued that Alabama’s redrawn congressional map still meant that candidates favored by black voters had no chance of winning outside a single congressional district, now represented by Rep. Terri Sewell, Alabama’s only Democrat and only black member. congressional delegation.
“It basically said if you were black in Alabama, your vote would count less,” Mr. Milligan said. “It was our duty and honor to challenge that.”
The state wanted to use the newly designated districts while appealing the lower court’s ruling to the Supreme Court.
Although Alabama lost its case in a 5-4 vote in June, the state leaned heavily on hopes of convincing one member of that slim majority, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to essentially change his vote.
The state court filing repeatedly cited a separate opinion Judge Kavanaugh wrote in June that suggested he might be receptive to the state’s arguments in the right case. Justice Kavanaugh wrote, drawing from Justice Clarence Thomas’s dissent, that even if race-based redistricting were allowed for a period of time under the Voting Rights Act, “the power to conduct race-based redistricting does not arise extend indefinitely into the future.”
This story was reported by The Associated Press. AP writer Kim Chandler contributed to this report from Montgomery, Alabama.