Washington, D.C. — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed Alabama to move ahead with elections using a gerrymandered congressional map that a lower court found likely discriminates against Black voters. The high court majority halted the lower court ruling that ordered officials to redraw the congressional map in a way that does not dilute the voting power of Black residents. The current map has only one majority-Black district and six majority-white districts, even though Black residents make up more than one-quarter of the state’s population. In response, Ben Olinsky, senior vice president of Structural Reform and Governance and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
The Supreme Court’s hard-right justices simply don’t care that Alabama is trying to weaken the voting power of its Black citizens. The court’s decision to let this map stay in place undermines the Voting Rights Act and ignores blatant racially discriminatory gerrymandering. This is yet another reason why Congress must pass comprehensive voting rights legislation that would prevent state politicians from undermining the rights of their own voters.
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, please contact Sam Hananel at [email protected].