The conservative-dominated US Supreme Court in a shocking ruling sided with black voters who claimed a Republican-drawn district map in Alabama was discriminatory.
In a 5-4 decision, the court said that the congressional map, which includes a majority-black congressional district with only a majority of seven, in a state where more than one in four residents are black, could potentially be infringing on electoral rights. Violates the era. Historical Civil Rights. represent.
The case was closely watched for its potential to undermine the Voting Rights Act, which was passed in 1965 and sought to outlaw Jim Crow-era racial discrimination in the American vote. Several Supreme Court rulings in recent years have struck down the law, most notably a 2013 ruling that blocked a provision of the law that exempted states with a history of discriminatory voting practices from federal review of new laws and procedures. have to face.
On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union hailed the latest ruling as “a great victory for black voters in Alabama” and said the disputed map “dilutes black political power.”
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the court’s liberals in the majority decision.
https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1666820138128252934?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
In lower courts, challengers to Alabama’s map argued that amalgamation diluted the influence of black voters by concentrating their voting power in one district, while reducing the remaining black population to levels too small to form a majority in other districts. distributed on
They accused the map of violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a provision intended to counter measures that cause racial bias in voting even in the absence of racial intent. The Supreme Court’s decision stated that Alabama’s black population was already large enough and compact enough geographically to create a second district.
Alabama, which appealed the lower court’s decision, argued that it would be racially discriminatory to draw up another district to give black voters a better chance to elect their preferred candidates.
He argued that a second district would favor him over other voters and called the current map “racially neutral”.
During Supreme Court arguments in October, Justice Kitangi Brown Jackson rejected the idea that race should not be part of the redistricting equation.
She said that amendments to the United States Constitution after the Civil War created a legal basis for legislation “designed to make persons with fewer opportunities and less rights equal to white citizens.”
But partisan politics supports the cause of redistribution. US states redraw electoral districts each decade to reflect population changes. In most states, redistricting is done by the party in power at the time, which regularly leads to accusations of map manipulation for partisan advantage.
Republicans control the Alabama state legislature. Creating a new district with a large black population, if not a majority, could send the state a second Democrat to the US House of Representatives.
