Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a lawsuit over Alabama's congressional district map, which sets up a new test of the Voting Rights Act.
By KIM CHANDLER, MARK SHERMAN and GARY FIELDS Associated Press
The case the Supreme Court will take up Tuesday centers on whether congressional districts in Alabama were drawn to reduce the political influence of Black voters, but it’s also part of a much broader problem that undermines representative government in the U.S. Republicans dominate elected office in Alabama and are in charge of redistricting after taking control of the Legislature after the 2010 elections. They have been resistant to creating a second district with a Democratic-leaning Black majority that could send another Democrat to Congress.
The lawsuit claims the Alabama congressional map dilutes the voting strength of Black residents by packing a large number of them into a single district — the 7th, where 55% of voters are Black — while fragmenting other communities. That includes the state’s Black Belt region and the city of Montgomery.
African Americans served in Alabama’s congressional delegation following the Civil War in the period known as Reconstruction. They did not return until 1993, a year after the courts ordered the state to reconfigure the 7th Congressional District into a majority-Black one, which has since been held by a succession of Black Democrats. That 1992 map remains the basis for the one in use today.
“The Voting Rights Act does not force states to sort voters based on race,” Marshall said in a statement. “The VRA is meant to prohibit racial gerrymanders, not require them.”