In a major development, a federal court has ordered Alabama to adopt a new congressional map that could give Democrats an extra seat in the next election. This decision comes at a crucial time when control of the closely divided US House of Representatives is at stake.
The three-judge panel, which included two judges appointed by former Republican presidents Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan, and a third elevated to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by former Democratic President Bill Clinton, chose a map that maintains the state’s single majority. black neighborhood It also establishes a second district where black voters make up nearly half of the voting-age population.
This ruling follows the court’s second finding that congressional limits set by the Republican-led state legislature likely violated the Voting Rights Act by illegally diluting the black vote. To regain the majority in the 435-seat House of Representatives in the November 2024 election, Democrats would need to flip five seats.
Although more than a quarter of Alabama’s residents were black, the plans approved by Republicans included only one district where black voters were at or near a majority. That district, the 7th, is represented by the state’s only Democrat, Terri Sewell, a black woman.
Civil rights organizations contested the Republican map, claiming that Republicans had intentionally dispersed black voters to ensure their continued victory in six of the state’s seven districts. The US Supreme Court twice refused to overturn the panel’s findings that Republican strategies were illegal.
The court, in its ruling, stated, “It didn’t have to be this way,” adding that if the legislature had created a second-chance district or majority-minority district, the situation would have been different.
There are also similar disputes in Louisiana and Georgia, where civil rights groups claim Republican lawmakers have illegally disadvantaged black voters by rigging congressional boundaries.
The newly approved Alabama map was one of three that a court-appointed special master had drawn for the panel’s consideration. This decision marks an important step in the ongoing battle for fair representation and voting rights in the United States.
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