Federal court blocks new Republican-friendly voting map in Alabama
The Guardian • • general
Key Points:
- A federal three-judge panel ruled that Alabama cannot use its 2023 congressional map for the 2024 midterm elections, finding it was intentionally drawn to discriminate against Black voters.
- The court emphasized that despite the Supreme Court's weakening of the Voting Rights Act, Alabama's map still violated protections against racial discrimination in voting.
- Alabama lawmakers had passed the 2023 map after a court ordered a new map with two majority-Black districts, but the panel found the 2023 plan deliberately diluted Black voters' influence.
- The ruling sets up a likely appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will test the limits of the recent Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais regarding racial gerrymandering.
- This case is part of a broader southern Republican effort to redraw maps post-Callais to create more Republican-friendly districts, with similar challenges occurring in Tennessee, Louisiana, and South Carolina.