Supreme Court allows Alabama to use congressional map favoring Republicans in this year’s elections

The lower court had ordered Alabama to use the same court-drawn map it used in the 2024 elections that sent two Black Democrats to Congress. Black residents comprise a majority or close to it in two of the state’s seven congressional districts.

“The Supreme Court’s decision gives cover to Alabama and others to deliberately and openly discriminate against Black voters without fear of any consequence. The Court’s shameless decision to reinstate an intentionally racially discriminatory map defies any thoughtful or consistent application of the law,” Deuel Ross, director of litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said Tuesday night.

He said the fund will “continue to throw all of our resources into the fight to ensure that Alabama voters have the fair representation that they deserve.”

Attorney General Steve Marshall told the court that the state did not intentionally discriminate against Black residents and should be allowed to hold elections this year under a map chosen by lawmakers, not judges.

The appeal is the latest development in the fallout from last month’s Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Black-majority district in Louisiana and weakened the federal Voting Rights Act. That ruling has led Republicans in several Southern states, including Alabama, to take steps to reshape voting districts with large minority populations that have elected Democrats.

The Alabama cases stretches back several years. The three-judge panel in 2023 ruled that a map drawn by Republican state lawmakers intentionally diluted the voting power of Black citizens. The court said the state, which is about 27% Black, should have two districts where Black voters are the majority or close to it.

After the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Louisiana case, Alabama officials moved to implement the 2023 state-drawn map. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority agreed to lift the injunction that had blocked the map’s use and sent the case back to the three-judge panel for reconsideration in light of the Louisiana ruling.

In the meantime, voters cast ballots in Alabama’s May 19 primaries, and Ivey set new special primaries for Aug. 11 in four congressional districts affected by the map switch.

Upon further review, the judicial panel said it was standing behind its initial finding that there was “undisputed evidence” of intentional racial discrimination.

It said the special congressional primaries should instead proceed under the previous court-approved districts.

The panel was wrong, the high court’s conservative majority wrote in an unsigned opinion that said the lower court “did not heed the presumption of legislative good faith.”

In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor chastized her colleagues for enabling what promises to be “a chaotic election, held under a never-before-used congressional map that intentionally discriminates against Black Alabamians.”

The use of the court-ordered map led to the 2024 election of U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat. The map put into place by Tuesday’s order gives the GOP an opportunity to reclaim the south Alabama seat.

___

Associated Press writer Kim Chandler contributed to this report from Montgomery, Ala.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

Mark Sherman, The Associated Press

by The Canadian Press

Supreme Court allows Alabama to use congressional map favoring Republicans in this year’s elections

What's Trending