Federal Court Redraws a Fair Alabama Congressional Map — Likely Giving Democrats Another U.S. House Seat
After the state's Republican-controlled legislature failed to comply with the Voting Rights Act — and a Supreme Court order — a federal court stepped in to ensure that Alabama's districting adequately reflects its Black population
A federal court has redrawn Alabama's congressional map after the Republican-controlled state legislature failed to comply with the Voting Rights Act — and a Supreme Court order — by refusing to create districts representative of the state's Black population.
The new congressional map is the result of a lengthy legal fight and will have an impact that reaches far beyond state lines, as it will add a second congressional district in the state that favors Democrats, likely flipping a U.S. House seat blue in 2024.
The U.S. representatives for Alabama's 2nd and 7th Congressional Districts will now be chosen largely by Black Alabamians, who have historically voted for Democratic candidates, as NPR correspondent Hansi Lo Wang noted Thursday.
Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman reports that — based on how people voted in the 2020 presidential election — Alabama's 2nd Congressional District has just gone from favoring Republicans by 21 points to favoring Democrats by 12 points.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Evan Milligan speaks with media about his Supreme Court case, "Merrill v. Milligan," which ultimately helped enforce the creation of a second majority-Black congressional district in AlabamaEarlier this year, federal judges threw out a seven-district congressional map drawn up by Republican lawmakers after finding it may have violated the landmark Voting Rights Act by diluting the power of Black voters in the state.
Following an appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the lower court, ruling that the map did appear to discriminate against Black voters. While Black residents comprise some 27% of Alabama’s population, just one of the state’s seven districts is currently drawn to include a majority-Black population.
The Alabama Legislature was then ordered to comply with the Voting Rights Act and redraw districts that accurately reflect the state's population. Instead, the Republican legislature proposed an updated map that would continue to benefit Republicans, rather than Black voters.
In September, the federal court struck down that updated map, with judges writing that they were "disturbed" by how the legislature drew its districts. In a scathing opinion, the court said the state "did not even nurture the ambition" to comply with the Voting Rights Act, despite being ordered to do so.
The federal court added that, because state lawmakers proved unwilling to create a fair map, it would appoint a special master to draw a seat in which Black people would be properly represented.
The Democratic Party lost its majority in the U.S. House of Representatives by only a few seats in the 2022 midterms, which could explain why members of the Alabama GOP would not compromise on creating a district that could potentially strip the House of a safely Republican seat.
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