A federal judge has approved a new congressional map that reportedly will give Alabama Democrats an advantage in the 2024 election.
The Wednesday ruling establishes a new second “majority-black district,” according to the Daily Caller.
The three-judge panel had previously ordered a special master to draw a new congressional map after determining the state legislature failed to map a second black-majority district as mandated by the court.
The ruling is expected to provide Democrats with another seat in the state House. The Alabama secretary is state is charged with ensuring the new map is used in the 2024 election.
An excerpt of the court ruling read:
The Secretary and the Legislators object generally to all the Special Master’s Remedial Plans on the ground that the Special Master allowed race to predominate over traditional districting principles.
In essence, this is the same argument that we and the Supreme Court have rejected at each successive stage of this litigation — that any map that fails to ‘meet or beat’ the 2023 Plan on traditional districting criteria favored by the State necessarily allows race to predominate in its creation.
The previous congressional map for the state, drawn by a GOP-led legislature, was rejected by the state Supreme Court 5–4. The court’s objection was based on a perceived violation of the Voting Rights Act.
The court ordered a new map to be drawn last July.
“State representatives appealed the decision but the Supreme Court again affirmed their order for a new map to be drawn, stating: “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.”
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