This year, the Supreme Court ruled that Alabama’s congressional map drawn to reflect the changes in the 2020 census was unconstitutional in a 5-4 decision.
“Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh aligned with the court’s liberals in affirming a lower-court ruling that found a likely violation of the Voting Rights Act in an Alabama congressional map with one majority Black seat out of seven districts in a state where more than one in four residents is Black,” reported the Associated Press in June. “The state now will have to draw a new map for next year’s election.”
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama lawmakers refuse to create 2nd majority-Black congressional district in defiance of U.S. Supreme Court.
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) July 21, 2023
The new map must have two majority black districts, the edict handed down by the nation’s highest court. A special session of the state legislature was gaveled in the Heart of Dixie, but the new map didn’t have a second majority-black district. A move that many view as flipping off the Supreme Court. This move by the legislature is bound to fire up liberals (via NBC News):
Alabama Republicans on Friday defied a U.S. Supreme Court order by passing a new congressional map that includes only one majority-Black district.
The GOP-controlled Legislature had called a special session to redraw an earlier map after the Supreme Court reaffirmed a federal court order to include two districts where Black voters make up voting-age majorities, “or something quite close to it.” But on Friday, state Republicans approved a new map with just one majority-Black seat and a second district that is approximately 40% Black.
The map was completed Friday afternoon — hours before the court-ordered deadline for the Legislature to draw up new boundaries — as a compromise between the House and Senate versions.
Democrats slammed the map and its drafters, arguing that legislators ignored a court order and that the map continued the racist history of voter suppression.
[…]
Plaintiffs can submit objections in the coming weeks under the current court order, and the federal judges will consider them at an Aug. 14 hearing. The court can decide to hire an outside expert to redraw the maps if it agrees that the map is another racial gerrymander.
As the Legislature advanced two maps without a second Black-majority district, plaintiffs expressed outrage and shock.
Marina Jenkins, the executive director of the National Redistricting Foundation — one of the groups that supported some of the plaintiffs in the suit, Allen v. Milligan — slammed the maps in a statement.
“Alabama Republicans are intentionally drawing political retention maps at the expense of Black Alabamians — in defiance of the Supreme Court and the Alabama district court. It is a continuation of the state’s long, sordid history of disenfranchising Black voters,” she said, promising to challenge the maps in court.
Talk about a Jacksonian response to the Supreme Court from Montgomery. After weeks of bashing the Supreme Court, undoubtedly, the Left will come to its defense as Alabama stands its ground on its congressional maps...for now.
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