State officials urged the justices to allow them to jettison Alabama’s congressional district map, citing the Supreme Court’s recent decision that dealt a blow to the Voting Rights Act.
Officials in Alabama asked the Supreme Court on Friday to clear the way for the state to use a new voting map for the midterm elections, hoping for permission to use districts that would boost Republican chances of flipping at least one Democratic-held seat.
In a series of emergency applications, the Alabama officials urged the justices to allow the state to jettison its current congressional district map, citing the Supreme Court’s April 29 decision that upended Louisiana’s voting map and dealt a blow to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Alabama’s current map, which was drawn to conform to the Voting Rights Act as it had been interpreted before the court’s recent ruling, has two districts with a majority of Black voters. Both are held by Democrats.
“Alabama’s case mirrors Louisiana’s, and they should end the same way: with this year’s elections run with districts based on lawful policy goals, not race,” state officials asserted in court filings to the justices.
In the Louisiana case, the Supreme Court declared that a majority Black district was an illegal racial gerrymander that violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause.
With the country already in a coast-to-coast redistricting battle launched by President Trump and Republicans in Texas, the Supreme Court’s ruling has spurred Republican-led Southern states to reconsider district lines. Citing a desire for partisan advantage, they have singled out districts long held by Democrats, with a majority of Black voters.