Supreme Court clears path for Alabama to redraw congressional map
CBS News • • nation
Key Points:
- The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to allow Alabama to implement a new GOP-drawn congressional map with one majority-Black district ahead of the 2026 midterms, overturning lower court decisions that blocked the map's use.
- The decision follows the Court's recent ruling weakening the Voting Rights Act, and the case was remanded to lower courts for further proceedings in light of that precedent.
- Alabama's current map, used in 2024, has two majority-Black districts and was court-ordered after the 2021 GOP map was found likely to violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
- Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures criticized the ruling as a setback for Black political representation in Alabama, while GOP officials argued for elections free from racial sorting.
- The legal battle over Alabama's congressional districts has spanned much of the decade and involved multiple Supreme Court interventions amid ongoing challenges to the state's redistricting plans.