Newsman: The U.S. Supreme Court has reinstated Alabama’s new GOP-drawn congressional map over the objection of civil rights groups and decisions of two lower courts finding that it dilutes the influence of Black voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act. In a 5-4 vote, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the court’s three liberals in dissent, the Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for Alabama to use its new congressional district map even though a lower court said it violated the Voting Rights Act by denying Black voters a new district. The court granted a request from Alabama Republicans to put a hold on the lower court ruling.
The Supreme Court also said it would hear Alabama’s challenge to the lower court ruling that declared the maps void. That appeal is not likely to be heard until the court’s new term begins in the fall. As a practical matter, the court’s action allows Alabama Republicans to use their map for this year’s elections.
Alabama is appealing the decision, saying it would force the state to draw lines based solely on race and at a “late hour” ahead of midterms, creating voter chaos. Republicans allege the claims are less about racial representation than they are about Democrats trying to take back power.
The decision means Alabama will not immediately have to redraw its political lines to include a second majority-Black district, as had been ordered by a District Court judge, allowing the original maps to take effect for midterm elections. At the same time, the Supreme Court’s majority said it would take up the Alabama redistricting case on the merits later this year.
In explaining the court’s decision, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said it was too close to the election to undo the Alabama Legislature’s maps.
“Late judicial tinkering with election laws can lead to disruption and to unanticipated and unfair consequences for candidates, political parties, and voters, among others,” Kavanaugh wrote.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined with the three liberal justices in saying the Supreme Court should not have put the lower court ruling on hold. Roberts, in a separate dissent, said the lower court’s ruling should control the 2022 election and that after that the Supreme Court should hold a full hearing on the merits of the issue that would control future elections.
Chief Justice John Roberts also wrote in dissent that he would have allowed the District Court’s order to stand given that its analysis of the case in his view “seems correct.”
“We are disappointed by today’s decision. The fight for fair representation for Black voters in Alabama has been a winding road, generations long,” said Evan Milligan, an Alabama voter who helped bring the legal challenge to the state’s new map. “We won’t dishonor their legacy by putting down the torch they have handed to us. We will continue striving to ensure that our legislature honors the Voting Rights Act and that Black Alabamians have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.”
Writing separately for herself and Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Elena Kagan said the court went “badly wrong in granting a stay.” Accepting Alabama’s contentions, she said, “would rewrite decades of this court’s precedents” about the protections of the Voting Rights Act.
“It does a disservice to Black Alabamians who under that precedent have had their electoral power diminished — in violation of a law this Court once knew to buttress all of American democracy,” she wrote.
The case — the first to reach the Supreme Court involving the redrawing of political boundaries with 2020 census results — could affect redistricting in other states that gained minority populations.2200:30
In past years, the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 required states with histories of racial discrimination to seek permission from the Justice Department or federal courts before new political maps could take effect. But the Supreme Court did away with that requirement in 2013.
This year’s round of redistricting is underway with no obligation for states to seek pre-clearance. In the past, they had to justify their changes in advance, but new boundaries will now take effect unless the courts block them in response to lawsuits.
The 2020 census showed Alabama’s Black population rising by about 4 percent, while the white population dropped by about 2 percent. Blacks account for just over a quarter of the state’s total population but have a voting majority in only one of its seven congressional districts.
