The Supreme Court vacated the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama’s ruling blocking the state from implementing a 2023 congressional redistricting map.
SCOTUS remanded it back to the lower court “for consideration in light of Louisiana v. Callais.”
The majority did not offer any explanation, but the three leftist judges penned a four-page dissent because, of course, they did.
Alabama went to SCOTUS after the ruling in the Louisiana case, in which SCOTUS reminded everyone that you cannot use race as a factor in drawing a congressional district.
The district court’s ruling required Alabama to have two black congressional districts, similar to the Louisiana case.
The court also stopped Alabama “from changing its congressional district and state legislative maps until 2030, after prior efforts to make changes ended up in court.”
I don’t know if the 2023 map will work either because I’m seeing outlets report that the decision leaves Alabama with one black majority Congressional district:
After the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature adopted new House district lines in 2021, the high court agreed with a lower court that Alabama’s congressional map likely violated Section 2 by diluting the votes of Black residents. The lower court had said the state should have two House districts where Black voters have the opportunity to elect their preferred candidates.Following that decision, state lawmakers enacted in July 2023 a new House map, which, like the 2021 plan, included a single majority-Black district. State officials said the congressional districts were drawn to minimize county splits, including in the so-called Black Belt, a rural region named for its fertile soil, and to adhere to traditional redistricting principles.But that 2023 map drew another challenge and again, a three-judge district court panel blocked those congressional districts from being used in the 2024 elections. The Supreme Court declined to let Alabama use those House boundaries, and 2024 congressional elections were held under a remedial map drawn by the district court.
I’m guessing if Alabama can prove it did not use race to redraw that district, then it’d be fine.
The legislature finished its special session on May 8, passing bills to reinstate the maps and redo primary elections in districts 1, 2, and 7 since the new map affects them.
[Featured image via YouTube]
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