Advocates said that the Supreme Court’s unexpected affirmation part of the Voting Right Act was more than just a victory for Black voters in Alabama. It could also send new Democrats into Congress in up to four states as this precedent is used in similar cases across the country.
The Alabama congressional map was struck down by the court on Thursday. It was divided 5-4. The court agreed with the lower court that Alabama had diminished the power of Blacks voters by drawing only one district with a majority Black population when there were sufficient voters to fill two seats.
The court’s liberals were backed by Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative justice and Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The state’s Republican-controlled Legislature will be tasked with redrawing Alabama’s seven congressional districts so they include two majority-Black — and heavily Democratic — seats in the state’s so-called Black Belt. The Black Belt is named after the fertile, dark soil which was farmed by many Black Alabama voters’ enslaved forefathers.
The decision will have a far-reaching impact on the entire region. It is a landmark ruling that bolstered the Voting rights Act of 1965. This legislation ensured voting representation for all people of color.
The ruling on Thursday surprised many court watchers and voting rights activists, in part because of the conservative majority of 6-3 that often rules against voting rights groups. The court ordered Alabama to use the challenged maps in the midterm elections in February 2022. This indicated that it would likely rule in favor of the state.
In Georgia and Texas, courts are considering similar challenges against Section 2 of federal redistricting laws.
Changes could have a major impact on which party controls Congress. Republicans only hold a 5-seat majority in 2024. The ongoing fights over the congressional map could be the difference between another close election.
“I believe you’re going see changes to many of these maps — if they are not all of them — in a short time,” said John Bisognano. He is the president of both the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, and the National Redistricting Foundation. Both organizations supported some of plaintiffs who challenged Alabama’s maps.
Abha Khanna of the Elias Law Group who represents plaintiffs in Alabama and other voting right cases said that the Supreme Court’s ruling gives “reason to be confident” going into the cases.
She said that the state defendants were unable to manipulate the law or change it because their facts did not add up.
Michael Li, redistricting specialist at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law said that he expected at least three new Black district to emerge in South due to Thursday’s decision.
Also, state and local offices could change hands. The challenges to the congressional elections are just one of an estimated thirty dozen across the country.
Li added: “That doesn’t mean that all those cases will succeed. Not everything will be as simple as Alabama. It remains to be determined how the court will deal with more complex fact patterns.”
In addition to the Alabama case, there are seven other cases that have been brought by the American Civil Liberties Union that concern local, state and congressional district maps.
Louisiana will be the most affected by Alabama’s ruling and is expected to follow Alabama when it comes to redrawing of maps.
In June 2022 the Supreme Court, using a similar approach to the Alabama case, permitted Republicans to use the map of Louisiana’s 6 districts that had been struck down by a judge because there was only one district instead of two where Black voters had a good chance to elect their representatives. In November’s midterm election, Republicans were able to win five out of six districts using the new map.
The Supreme Court has put the case on hold pending the Alabama decision. The court will likely allow Louisiana’s ruling to take effect as a result Thursday’s decision. This gives Democrats a better chance of winning a second congressional seat.
The Georgia case in which plaintiffs claim that there should be a majority-Black district within metropolitan Atlanta is tentatively scheduled to go to trial in September. A timeline was set by the court to allow it to take into consideration the Supreme Court ruling in Allen v. Milligan.
Texas’s challenge is at an earlier stage of the legal process compared to other states. Bisognano stated that it could create up to five “coalition district” in which diverse minority groups can come together and elect representatives of their choice.
Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington said in a statement following the ruling on Thursday that the decision would help “deliver a House of Representatives which better reflects our nation’s diversity,” but did not make any specific comments about the number of seats.
Jack Pandol is the Communications Director of the National Republican Congressional Committee. He said Democrats are trying to “rig” the game and “sue until it’s Blue,” but he also predicted that “Republicans’ majority will grow in spite of Democrats’ legal end-runs.”
Sophia Lin Lakin is a voting rights attorney at the ACLU. She said that even though it appears the decision favors Democrats, it’s still hard to tell if it will result in the creation of new majority districts with a Democratic leaning.
She said that “there will be litigation surrounding every sentence of this decision”.
