The Supreme Court on Monday removed a major hurdle blocking Alabama from implementing a new congressional map that would reduce the state's majority-Black districts from two to one in this year's elections. The conservative majority sent the case back to lower courts, a procedural move that could accelerate Alabama's ability to deploy the Republican-drawn map.
The decision came over sharp dissent from the court's three liberal justices. Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that the action was "inappropriate and will cause only confusion as Alabamians begin to vote in the elections scheduled for next week."
Alabama's legal fight over its congressional map has stretched for years, centered on whether federal voting rights law requires the state to preserve a second majority-Black district. The latest phase accelerated dramatically following the Supreme Court's April 29 ruling in a Louisiana case that severely weakened a cornerstone provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. That decision made it substantially easier for states to draw maps that reduce minority voting strength.
The timing proved crucial. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall immediately asked the Supreme Court to act on Alabama's pending appeal, arguing the Louisiana ruling changed the legal landscape. The state legislature had already passed, and Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law, legislation pushing back the primary election originally scheduled for May 19.
The underlying map dispute traces back to Alabama's post-2020 census redistricting. The state, where Black residents comprise more than a quarter of the population spread across seven congressional districts, initially drew a map with just one majority-Black district. Civil rights groups challenged it in court and won a surprise victory at the Supreme Court in June 2023. Alabama tried again with a revised map that still contained only one majority-Black district, but the Supreme Court rejected that effort too in September 2023.
That rejection led to a court-drawn map with two majority-Black districts that was used in the 2024 cycle. Democrats won both races.
Now, with the Supreme Court's latest intervention, Alabama appears positioned to move forward with its preferred single-majority-Black-district map, effectively undoing what the lower courts had previously imposed. The reversal underscores how the court's April ruling in the Louisiana case has already begun reshaping voting rights enforcement across the country.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "The speed of this reversal shows just how thoroughly the Louisiana decision dismantled the Voting Rights Act protections that had stood for nearly 60 years."
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