Supreme Court rules in favor of Black voters in Alabama redistricting case

SO WE’RE ALSO FOLLOWING A BIG STORY COMING OUT OF THE NATION’S CAPITAL TODAY. THE SUPREME COURT SENDING DOWN A SURPRISING RULING EARLIER. YEAH, AND A 5 TO 4 VOTE JUSTICES FIND ALABAMA REDRAW ITS CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS. ALL SEVEN CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS HEAVILY FAVOR REPUBLICANS. CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS SAY THE CONTROVERSIAL MAP DISCRIMINATES AGAINST BLACK VOTERS. WRITES I WANT TO HEAD TO WASHINGTON, JULIA AINSLEY STANDING BY JUST OUTSIDE THE SUPREME COURT TO EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. SO WE GOT A BIT OF A SURPRISE HERE AT THE SUPREME COURT THIS MORNING IN A54 OPINION, THE JUSTICES SAID THAT ALABAMA WAS IN VIOLATION OF SECTION TWO OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT, MEANING THAT WHEN THEY DREW THEIR CONGRESSIONAL BOUNDARIES, THEY DID NOT ALLOW CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS, NAMELY BLACK VOTERS, TO REMEDY THOSE VIOLATIONS MEANS THAT THEY THOUGHT THAT THEY WERE COMMITTING OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT. THEY DIDN’T ALLOW THEM TO PROPERLY SAY THAT, HEY, LOOK, OUR VOTES ARE BEING DIMINISHED. THE WAY YOU’VE DRAWN THESE BOUNDARIES. AND THEY AGREED WITH THE LOWER COURT THAT SAID IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT ALABAMA’S INTENT WAS, THEY MIGHT NOT HAVE HAD THE INTENT OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, BUT THE EFFECT WAS RACIALLY DISCRIMINATORY BECAUSE THE BLACK VOTERS IN ALABAMA WOULD NOT HAVE HAD THE SAME IMPACT WHEN THEY WENT TO THE POLLS AS WHITE VOTERS BASED ON THE WAY THOSE CONGRESSIONAL BOUNDARIES WERE DRAWN. NOW, THE REASON THIS IS A SURPRISE IS BECAUSE, AS YOU KNOW, THE JUSTICES HAVE MOVED SO FAR TO THE RIGHT. IT’S A63 CONSERVATIVE MAJORITY ON THE COURT, BUT IN THIS CASE, TWO CONSERVATIVE JUSTICES, INCLUDING THE CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS, JOINED BY JUSTICE KAVANAUGH, SIDED WITH THE MAJORITY, SAYING THAT ALABAMA WAS IN VIOLATION OF SECTION TWO OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT. AND THAT ALSO COMES AS A SURPRISE BECAUSE CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS, IN THE PAST HAS CITED TO WEAKEN IN SOME WAYS THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT. AND THIS WAS SEEN AS ONE OF THE LAST PIECES THAT WAS HANGING ON THIS SECTION TWO. AND NOW HE WAS SAYING THAT ALABAMA DID GO TOO FAR. IT SENDS A MESSAGE TO OTHER STATES THAT MAY BE REDRAWING THEIR CONGRESSIONAL BOUNDARIES, THAT IN FACT KNOW THEY NEED TO ALLOW WAYS FOR RIGHTS GROUPS IN THEIR STATES TO COME FORWARD WITH COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE WAY THESE BOUNDARIES ARE DRAWN. AND THEY CAN NO LONGER ARGUE THAT THEIR INTENT WASN’T RACIALLY MOTIVATED. WHAT MATTERS IS THE EFFECT FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE DEFENDERS OF VOTING RIGHTS AND ON THE RIGHTS OF MINORITIES TO HAVE A FAIR SAY WHEN IT COMES

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a surprising 5-4 ruling in favor of Black voters in a congressional redistricting case, ordering the creation of a second district with a large Black population.Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined with the court’s liberals in affirming a lower-court ruling that found a likely violation of the Voting Rights Act in an Alabama congressional map with one majority Black seat out of seven congressional districts in a state where more than one in four residents are Black.The latest: �� 13 coverage on PoliticsThe case had been closely watched for its potential to weaken the landmark voting rights law.The court had allowed the challenged map to be used for the 2022 elections and at arguments in October, the justices appeared willing to make it harder to use the voting rights law to challenge redistricting plans as racially discriminatory.The chief justice himself suggested last year that he was open to changes in the way courts weigh discrimination claims under the part of the law known as section 2. But on Thursday, Roberts wrote that the court was declining “to recast our section 2 case law as Alabama requests.”Roberts was part of conservative high-court majorities in earlier cases that made it harder for racial minorities to use the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in ideologically divided rulings in 2013 and 2021.Follow us on social: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTubeThe other four conservative justices dissented Thursday. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the decision forces “Alabama to intentionally redraw its longstanding congressional districts so that black voters can control a number of seats roughly proportional to the black share of the State’s population. Section 2 demands no such thing, and, if it did, the Constitution would not permit it.”The current case stems from challenges to Alabama’s seven-district congressional map, which included one district in which Black voters form a large enough majority that they have the power to elect their preferred candidate. The challengers said that one district is not enough, pointing out that overall, Alabama’s population is more than 25% Black.A three-judge court, with two appointees of former President Donald Trump, had little trouble concluding that the plan likely violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the votes of Black Alabamians. The panel ordered a new map drawn.Your neighborhood: Local coverage from �� 13But the state quickly appealed to the Supreme Court, where five conservative justices prevented the lower-court ruling from going forward. They allowed last year’s congressional elections to proceed under the map that the lower court had said is probably illegal.At the same time, the court decided to hear the Alabama case, and arguments were held in early October.Louisiana’s congressional map, also identified as probably discriminatory by a lower court, was allowed to remain in effect by the Supreme Court, too.Partisan politics underlies the case. Republicans who dominate elective office in Alabama have been resistant to creating a second district with a Democratic-leaning Black majority, or close to one, that could send another Democrat to Congress.The judges found that Alabama concentrated Black voters in one district while spreading them out among the others to make it impossible for them to elect a candidate of their choice.Alabama’s Black population is large enough and geographically compact enough to create a second district, the judges found.�� 13 On The Go: Download our app for freeAlabama argued that the lower court ruling would have forced it to sort voters by race and the state insisted it is taking a “race-neutral�� approach to redistricting.At arguments in October, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson scoffed at the idea that race could not be part of the equation. Jackson, the court’s first Black woman, said that constitutional amendments passed after the Civil War and the Voting Rights Act a century later were intended to do the same thing, make Black Americans “equal to white citizens.��

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a surprising 5-4 ruling in favor of Black voters in a congressional redistricting case, ordering the creation of a second district with a large Black population.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined with the court’s liberals in affirming a lower-court ruling that found a likely violation of the Voting Rights Act in an Alabama congressional map with one majority Black seat out of seven congressional districts in a state where more than one in four residents are Black.

The latest: �� 13 coverage on Politics

The case had been closely watched for its potential to weaken the landmark voting rights law.

The court had allowed the challenged map to be used for the 2022 elections and at arguments in October, the justices appeared willing to make it harder to use the voting rights law to challenge redistricting plans as racially discriminatory.

The chief justice himself suggested last year that he was open to changes in the way courts weigh discrimination claims under the part of the law known as section 2. But on Thursday, Roberts wrote that the court was declining “to recast our section 2 case law as Alabama requests.��

Roberts was part of conservative high-court majorities in earlier cases that made it harder for racial minorities to use the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in ideologically divided rulings in 2013 and 2021.

Follow us on social: | | |

The other four conservative justices dissented Thursday. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the decision forces “Alabama to intentionally redraw its longstanding congressional districts so that black voters can control a number of seats roughly proportional to the black share of the State’s population. Section 2 demands no such thing, and, if it did, the Constitution would not permit it.��

The current case stems from challenges to Alabama’s seven-district congressional map, which included one district in which Black voters form a large enough majority that they have the power to elect their preferred candidate. The challengers said that one district is not enough, pointing out that overall, Alabama’s population is more than 25% Black.

A three-judge court, with two appointees of former President Donald Trump, had little trouble concluding that the plan likely violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the votes of Black Alabamians. The panel ordered a new map drawn.

Your neighborhood: Local coverage from �� 13

But the state quickly appealed to the Supreme Court, where five conservative justices prevented the lower-court ruling from going forward. They allowed last year’s congressional elections to proceed under the map that the lower court had said is probably illegal.

At the same time, the court decided to hear the Alabama case, and arguments were held in early October.

Louisiana’s congressional map, also identified as probably discriminatory by a lower court, was allowed to remain in effect by the Supreme Court, too.

Partisan politics underlies the case. Republicans who dominate elective office in Alabama have been resistant to creating a second district with a Democratic-leaning Black majority, or close to one, that could send another Democrat to Congress.

The judges found that Alabama concentrated Black voters in one district while spreading them out among the others to make it impossible for them to elect a candidate of their choice.

Alabama’s Black population is large enough and geographically compact enough to create a second district, the judges found.

�� 13 On The Go: Download our app for free

Alabama argued that the lower court ruling would have forced it to sort voters by race and the state insisted it is taking a “race-neutral�� approach to redistricting.

At arguments in October, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson scoffed at the idea that race could not be part of the equation. Jackson, the court’s first Black woman, said that constitutional amendments passed after the Civil War and the Voting Rights Act a century later were intended to do the same thing, make Black Americans “equal to white citizens.��

��������

Supreme Court rules in favor of Black voters in Alabama redistricting case

Share

Share

Share

Top Picks

��