Voting rights activists are returning to court to fight Alabama's redrawn congressional districts, saying state Republicans failed to follow federal court orders to create a district that is fair to Black voters.
A map of a GOP proposal to redraw Alabama's congressional districts is displayed at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Ala., Tuesday, July 18, 2023. Alabama lawmakers are meeting in special session to draw new congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling blocking the current map. , saying state Republicans failed to follow federal court orders to create a district that is fair to Black voters.
A special three-judge panel in 2022 blocked use of the the state's existing districts and said any new congressional map should include two districts where “Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority” or something close. That panel’s decision was appealed by the state but upheld in June in a surprise ruling by thewhich concurred that having only one Black-majority district out of seven — in a state where more than one in four residents is Black — likely violated federal law.
“Alabama’s new congressional map ignores this court’s preliminary injunction order and instead perpetuates the Voting Rights Act violation that was the very reason that the Legislature redrew the map,” lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the case wrote.by the Republican-controlled Alabama Legislature maintained one-majority Black district but boosted the percentage of Black voters in the majority-white 2nd Congressional District, now represented by Republican Rep.
The state must file its defense of the map by Aug. 4. The three judges have scheduled an Aug. 14 hearing in the case as the fight over the map shifts back to federal court.
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