The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to allow Alabama to use its new congressional district map.
The state legislature met during a special session in July to draw a new map after the Supreme Court struck down the original one as a violation of the Voting Rights Act in a 5-4 June 8 decision. When a federal court struck down their new maps because they failed to remedy the issue highlighted by the Supreme Court, Alabama asked the justices to freeze the ruling.
The justices declined to stay the lower court’s ruling on Tuesday, meaning a court appointed a Special Master and cartographer will now redraw the map.
The federal court struck down Alabama’s new map after finding it did not, as required, include a second district with a majority or near-majority of black voters. (RELATED: ‘Deeply Troubled’: Federal Court Strikes Down Alabama’s Congressional Map)
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 04: Lead counsel for the plaintiffs Deuel Ross (2nd L) speaks to members of the press as President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) Janai Nelson (R), plaintiff Evan Milligan (2nd R) and U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) (3rd R) listen after the oral argument of the Merrill v. Milligan case at the U.S. Supreme Court on October 4, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“We are disturbed by the evidence that the State delayed remedial proceedings but ultimately did not even nurture the ambition to provide the required remedy,” the federal court wrote earlier this month. “And we are struck by the extraordinary circumstance we face. We are not aware of any other case in which a state legislature — faced with a federal court order declaring that its electoral plan unlawfully dilutes minority votes and requiring a plan that provides an additional opportunity district — responded with a plan that the state concedes does not provide that district.”
Alabama’s redrawn map increased the percentage of black voters in its 2nd Congressional District from 30 percent to about 42.5 percent.
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