Alabama lawmakers on Friday approved a redrawn map that carved out just one majority-Black congressional district in the state, defying a Supreme Court ruling that said Alabama had to create at least two majority-Black districts.
The new map, helmed by the Alabama Legislature’s Republican supermajority, increased the percentage of Black voters to around 50% in just one district, and a second district with roughly 40%. This new map means that District 7 would remain Alabama’s only Black-majority district, and the map actually “reduces the Black voting age population in District 7 from 55.6% to 50.65%,” according to an analysis of the map from CNN.
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A proposed change to Alabama’s District 2 would increase the Black voting population, but only to 39.9%.
The map proposal comes one month after a June Supreme Court ruling found that Alabama’s gerrymandered districts had violated civil rights laws and the Voting Rights Act. The Court found that the current district makeup disproportionally favored white voters, despite Black voters making up 25% of Alabama’s electorate, The Guardian reported.
The surprising decision from the conservative-majority Court upheld a lower court ruling that the current map violated the Voting Rights Act because it offered Black voters “less opportunity than other Alabamians to elect candidates of their choice to Congress,” and ordered the state’s districts to be redrawn. However, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) made it clear she had no intention of complying with the order, tweeting that the legislature “knows our state, our people, and our districts better than the federal courts or activist groups, and I am pleased that they answered the call, remained focused and produced new districts ahead of the court deadline.”
Further legal challenges are likely, and there “was never any intent in this building to comply with their court order,” Alabama state Rep. Chris England (D) told CNN.
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