The fight over Alabama’s congressional redistricting now shifts back to federal court

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Standing at an Alabama Statehouse microphone before lawmakers voted on new congressional districts, state Rep. Chris England said that change in the Deep South state has often happened only through federal court order. The fight over whether Alabama’s congressional map complies with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 now shifts back to federal court as state Republicans submit their new plan to the same three-judge panel that struck down the previous districts. Alabama lawmakers on Friday approved new district lines six weeks after the surprise U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding a lower court ruling that the state’s previous map — with one Black-majority district out of seven in a state that is 27% Black — likely violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting power of Black residents. ”Instead, the Court made clear that the VRA never requires adoption of districts that violate traditional redistricting principles.” In a July 13 letter to the state legislative redistricting committee, Marshall said the plaintiffs in the case “now demand a plan that provides not just a ‘fair chance’ to compete, but instead a guarantee of Democratic victories in at least two districts.” Republicans, who have been reluctant to create a Democratic-leaning district, are gambling that the court will accept their proposal or that the state will prevail in a second round of appeals. The three-judge panel that struck down Alabama’s existing map in 2022 said the “appropriate remedy” is a map with a second majority-Black district or “an additional district in which Black voters otherwise have an opportunity to elect a representative of their choice.” The judges added that it should include a second majority-Black district or “something quite close to it.” The meaning of “opportunity” dominated much of the floor debate in the Legislature as Democrats criticized the GOP proposal they said would ensure the reconfigured district stays under white Republican control.