Supreme court approves Alabama map that erases majority-Black district

Alabama can use a redrawn congressional map that eliminates one of the state’s two majority-Black districts in this year’s midterm elections, the US supreme court ruled in a 6-3 decision on Tuesday, another major blow to Black voters and a win for Republicans. The court’s emergency ruling is the most consequential decision it had issued since its landmark ruling in late April that struck down a critical provision of the Voting Rights Act. In that case, Louisiana v Callais , the court’s majority made it nearly impossible to win Voting Rights Act claims, saying that plaintiffs had to prove intentional discrimination. But on 26 May, a three-judge panel said the map Alabama wants to use for this year’s midterm was enacted with discriminatory intent . The court’s emergency ruling is the latest development in a long legal battle over Alabama’s congressional map. After the 2020 census, Alabama enacted a congressional plan that had six Republican districts and one Democratic one. The Democratic district was the only majority-Black district in the state. Black voters sued the state over the map, saying the plan violated the Voting Rights Act and unlawfully diluted the influence of Black voters. A three-judge panel agreed with that argument and ordered the state to produce a new map “to include two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it”. In a 5-4 decision in 2023, the supreme court upheld the court’s decision. …