Last we checked in on the Alabama congressional redistricting, a three-judge panel had thrown out a second set of maps drawn by the Alabama legislature after that same panel (affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court) threw out the first set of maps. The issue is whether having two Black-majority or “opportunity” (and therefore presmptively Democrat) districts was required. The maps redrawn by the legislature appeared to comply with prior court rulings, in my view, but the panel disagreed.
In reality, this is not about race or voting rights. It’s about political control with Democrats desperate to pick up a second Alabama seat.
We covered the story in Alabama Congressional Redistricting Back To The Drawing Board, Court Throws Out Legislative Map Again:
A three-judge panel has thrown out Alabama’s congressional district map that was recently redrawn by the legislature after a trip to the Supreme Court. The redrawn map maintained the one majority Black district but only by a 51% majority Black voting age population, down from 56%, but it also increased the Black voting age population in another district from 30% to 40%. The issue was whether that complied with a prior three-judge panel ruling affirmed by the Supreme Court.
Alabama sought an emergency stay from the U.S. Supreme Court.
While that application for a stay was pending, the panel appointed a special master to redraw the maps. Three maps were submitted yesterday:
Special Master Richard Allen submitted three proposed Alabama congressional district maps to a three-judge federal district court on Monday, the deadline set by the court.In a report to the court, Allen said all three maps provide two districts where Black voters have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice, as instructed by the court….On Allen’s three maps, drawn by court-appointed cartographer David Ely, District 2 is the second opportunity district.District 2 has a Black voting age population of 50.1% on Remedial Plan 1, 48.5% on Remedial Plan 2, and 48.7% on Remedial Plan 3.Allen’s report includes an election analysis to show District 2 is an opportunity district for Black voters. It shows that the Black-preferred candidate would have won in 15 of 17 elections in District 2 under Remedial Plan 1, in 13 of 17 under Remedial Plan 2, and in 16 of 17 under Remedial Plan 3.In District 7, the Black-preferred candidate would have won all 17 elections by an average margin of 29% on all three remedial plans.Parties in the case have three days to file objections to the court’s maps. The judges have scheduled a hearing for Oct. 3….The key issue is whether Alabama’s congressional map, with one majority Black district out of seven, dilutes the influence of Black voters in a state where one-fourth of residents are Black.
Today the Supreme Court declined to issue a stay in two Orders (here and here) in the companion cases, neither of which had an explanation or dissent.
So the three-judge panel will pick a map, and Democrats likely will pick up a seat.
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