In a 5-4 ruling, the US Supreme Court has ordered the creation of a second congressional district with a large Black population in Alabama. The ruling rejected a Republican-led effort to weaken landmark voting rights legislation and found a likely violation of the Voting Rights Act in an Alabama congressional map with only one majority Black seat out of seven districts.
In Alabama, more than a quarter of residents are Black, yet the previous congressional map had concentrated Black voters solely in one district. The case was brought forward by a group of Black Alabama voters, the NAACP and Greater Birmingham Ministries, who argued that the map limited Black voter influence. The US Supreme Court’s decision is anticipated to impact control of the closely divided US House of Representatives, as new maps are likely to be implemented in Alabama and Louisiana, which could allow Black voters to elect their preferred candidates in two more congressional districts.
The ruling confirms the decision of a lower court, which had found the previous Alabama congressional district map discriminatory towards Black voters. The current map has one Black-majority district among seven, whereas the two groups filing the lawsuit argued that there should be two such districts. The Supreme Court found that Alabama had not convincingly demonstrated that its intentions for a majority-white map were race-neutral and have blocked its use while litigation continues.
President Biden has called for Congress to enact new voting rights legislation, and civil rights groups have welcomed the decision, but continue to fight against district boundaries that marginalize Black voters. The decision means that Alabama will have to redraw its election maps ahead of the next election, likely to include a second majority-Black district as mandated by a lower court. The US Supreme Court’s decision is a win for voting rights and diversity in Congress, and it is hoped that this ruling will have a positive impact on redistricting cases currently taking place in other states.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas claimed that this decision meant Alabama had to intentionally redraw its congressional districts so that Black voters could control a proportion of seats proportional to the state’s population. Justice Thomas argued that the Constitution would not permit such a decision.
The ruling comes at a time where voting rights have been a hotly contested issue in the US. Civil rights organizations argue that the redistricting process disadvantages minority communities that are growing in population. This US Supreme Court ruling is seen as a victory for voting rights and pushes for greater diversity in the representation of various communities in Congress.
