In a momentous victory for Black voters in Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a resounding blow to racially discriminatory practices on Thursday (June 8), ruling 5-4 to invalidate Republican-drawn congressional districts.
The court’s decision, seen as a crucial reaffirmation of the Voting Rights Act, marked a significant turnaround from its 2013 Shelby County v. Holder ruling that weakened the act’s protections. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, both conservative justices, aligned with the three liberal justices in favor of the ruling.
The Supreme Court upheld a lower-court decision that condemned Alabama’s congressional map for its lack of representation for Black voters. Despite the state’s Black population comprising more than one in four residents, the map only allocated a single majority Black seat out of seven districts.
In January 2022, a lower court determined that two districts should have had a Black majority, as denying Black voters a fair chance to elect their representatives likely violated the Voting Rights Act.
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Chief Justice Roberts, in the majority opinion, stated, “We see no reason to disturb the District Court’s careful factual findings.” He further criticized Alabama’s attempt to challenge established precedents.
However, Justice Clarence Thomas led the dissenting conservative justices, arguing against federal judiciary intervention in the racial apportionment of Alabama’s congressional seats, as reported by NBC News.
This landmark ruling serves as a reminder of the constitutional obligation for states to redraw congressional district lines based on census results every ten years.
The redistricting process has often been exploited by the controlling party in state legislatures to gain political advantages. In Alabama, where the Black population constitutes 27 percent of the total population, they were only a majority in one district, representing a mere 14 percent of the districts.
Expressing gratitude for the court’s decision, Abha Khanna, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs who challenged the district maps, remarked, “Thankfully, the court today identified Alabama’s redistricting scheme as a textbook violation of the landmark civil rights law,” according to NBC News.
