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A federal court in Alabama struck down a congressional map drawn by Republican lawmakers, ruling the map didn’t satisfy requirements to shore up Black voter power in the state.
The ruling on Tuesday could have major implications for the balance of power in Congress once the 2024 elections come around.
Jim Crow appears to be the Alabama GOP’s top political adviser.
Over the last year, Alabama Republicans have thumbed their noses at a U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama order requiring them to draw an additional district where Black voters make up a large enough percentage to elect the representatives of their choice. The current plan only includes one majority-Black district, but the court had instructed Alabama lawmakers to create a second majority-Black district or something close to it.
The Supreme Court allowed Alabama to use that unlawful map in the 2022 midterm elections. But the justices in June held up the federal court ruling in Alabama that found the map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Alabama Republicans then went back to the drawing board … and returned with a map that, yet again, lacked another majority-Black voter district. Jim Crow appears to be the Alabama GOP’s top political adviser.
The three-judge panel expressed concerns about Alabama's judicial defiance in its order on Tuesday. "We do not take lightly federal intrusion into a process ordinarily reserved for the State Legislature," the judges wrote. "But we have now said twice that this Voting Rights Act case is not close. And we are deeply troubled that the State enacted a map that the State readily admits does not provide the remedy we said federal law requires."
The judges assigned a special master and cartographer to redraw the map ahead of the 2024 elections that "complies with the Voting Rights Act," according to the order.
The court’s ruling could have major implications on the 2024 congressional races and the balance of power in the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a slim, five-vote majority. And Republicans at the federal level seem well aware of this.
NBC News reported in July that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and several Republicans from Alabama’s congressional delegation — including Sen. Tommy Tuberville — contacted Republican legislators in Alabama as they were in the process of drawing this latest, unlawful map. Alabama’s Republican House speaker told NBC News that McCarthy was concerned about maintaining his House majority.
Tuesday’s court ruling proves those concerns are well-founded. The creation of a new congressional district powered by Black voters in Alabama could make his job much tougher as House majority leader if it doesn’t strip the job from him entirely.