Supreme court approves Alabama map that erases majority-Black district | Alabama

The U.S. Supreme Court said Alabama could use a redrawn congressional map in this year’s midterm elections that would eliminate one of the state’s two majority-black districts. reigned Tuesday’s 6-3 decision is another major blow to Black voters and a win for Republicans.

The court’s emergency ruling was its most significant decision since its landmark decision in late April that invalidated a critical provision of the Voting Rights Act. In that case, Louisiana v. Callais, the court’s majority said plaintiffs must prove intentional discrimination, making it nearly impossible to win Voting Rights Act claims. But on May 26, a three-judge panel said the map Alabama wants to use in this year’s midterms was created with discriminatory intent.

But in an unsigned opinion Tuesday, the court’s conservative justices said the panel did not properly reconsider the case in light of the Callais decision and other recent cases that undermine the Voting Rights Act.

lower court had failed The justices wrote that the legislature should be given a presumption of good faith. And the panel failed to meet a new test outlined in Callais that an alternative map proposed by plaintiffs to address the dilution of the Black vote could perform as well or better on supposedly neutral redistricting criteria, such as Alabama Republicans’ insistence on keeping gulf coast communities together (2023 majority opinionChief Justice John Roberts wrote that he found this argument unpersuasive).

In a sharply worded dissent, the court’s three liberal justices accused the majority of causing chaos and abandoning the rule of law.

“There are two paths before the Court. One is an orderly election that protects the right of Black Alabamians to vote and is conducted under a tried-and-tested congressional map with which all voters, election officials, and candidates are familiar,” wrote Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

“On the other side lies a chaotic election fought under a never-before-used congressional map that deliberately discriminates against Black Alabamians, which Alabama accepted in shameless defiance of a previous court decision directly upheld by this Court, and which would require officials to change voter registrations for hundreds of thousands of voters in just a few days at best, a task that would take months for Alabama to do so,” he added. “The majority chooses the second path and disregards both democratic values ​​and the rule of law.”

The court’s decision is the latest development in a long-running legal battle over Alabama’s congressional map. After the 2020 census, Alabama enacted a congressional plan that included six Republican districts and one Democratic district. The Democratic district was the only majority-Black district in the state.

Black voters sued the state, saying the plan violated the Voting Rights Act and illegally diluted the influence of Black voters. A three-judge panel agreed with that argument and ordered the state to prepare a new map that would “include two districts where Black voters constitute or are reasonably close to voting-age majorities.” In a 5-4 decision in 2023, the high court upheld the court’s decision.

When Alabama Republicans went to redraw the map in 2023, they implemented a plan that did not comply with the court order. On the map they tried to reintroduce, there was only one district where the majority was Black. The court blocked the map, saying it was drawn for discriminatory purposes, and appointed a special master to draw a new congress plan. This plan, which has two predominantly black districts, was used in the 2024 elections. Both districts elected Black Democrats.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Callais, Alabama, he took the extraordinary step of mobilizing fast-approaching primaries and sought to reintroduce the 2023 map. The three-judge panel blocked that map once again on May 26, saying: “We cannot see our way forward in requiring Alabamians to vote in the 2026 election under a district plan that is tainted by intentional race-based discrimination.”

The state has already held several primary elections, but Republican governor Kay Ivey postponed four congressional primaries until August.