The Supreme Court allows Alabama to use a federal map that reduces the black vote
The Supreme Court on Tuesday night allowed Alabama to use a new congressional district map in the November election that a lower court ruled discriminated against black voters.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision, which will eliminate one of Alabama’s two majority black districts, is expected to result in Republicans gaining one seat in the state’s House of Representatives in the upcoming midterm elections. The 2nd District seat currently held by Rep. Shomari Figures, from the Democratic Alliance, is now expected to be defeated by the Republican.
Republicans hold a razor-thin House majority. Since last year, they have pushed for limits in many states in an effort to keep that majority in the next election, which has led to similar efforts by Democrats in other states.
The decision of the Supreme Court’s six conservative members was not signed. It would allow Alabama to use the disputed map, for now, until the legal battle over it is finally resolved.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent joined by other liberal justices, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The majority said that the lower court’s decision that blocked the map failed to comply with the legal basis that requires a “presumption of … good faith” on the part of the Alabama legislature, which adopted the map, “because it interpreted the State’s disagreement with the court’s previous decision to fix it as evidence of discriminatory intent.”
Sotomayor, in her dissent, wrote, “Before the Court there are two options.”
“Under the other there is an organized election, held under a tried and tested congressional map
that protects the right to vote of black Alabamians and all voters, election officials, and candidates alike,” Sotomayor wrote.
“Also lies a chaotic election, held under an unprecedented congressional map that deliberately discriminates against Black Alabamians, Alabama defiantly accepts a court order directly affirmed by this Court, and that will require officials to change the voter registration of hundreds of thousands of voters in a matter of days,” wrote Alabama’s former representative.
“The majority chooses the second option and ignores both democratic principles and the rule of law. I respectfully disagree.”
Tuesday’s ruling overturns a ruling issued May 26 by a three-judge panel of the US District Court in Birmingham, Ala., that found the state’s proposed 2023 map was “deliberately racially biased.”
That panel was forced to revisit a previous decision barring the map from being used in state elections because of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in a case known as Louisiana v. Calais.
The Supreme Court in that case found that Louisiana’s drawing of its congressional maps was racially discriminatory in its creation of a second Black district.
The majority decision in the Alabama case on Tuesday evening said, “At this preliminary stage, the State has demonstrated that it is entitled to relief from the District Court’s order” against the implementation of the 2023 map.
“The state is likely to succeed fairly on both claims” in the case challenging the use of the map, the majority said.
NAACP General Counsel Kristen Clarke condemned the decision.
“The Supreme Court continues to wreak havoc on our democratic system, and with this latest action, it gives Alabama permission to use a congressional map previously found to be intentionally discriminatory,” Clarke said in a statement.
“This is a Court that is stripping Black voters of their power and voice at a rate that would put Jim Crow law enforcement officials to shame,” he said. “Our message to communities remains the same – the best way to voice your opposition is to get out the ballot box this election season.”
