Comment on Court Strikes Down Racist Alabama Congressional Map

With the midterm elections just months away, a trio of federal judges late Monday struck down Alabama's newly drawn congressional districts on the grounds that they discriminated against Black voters, forcing state lawmakers to craft new maps. In its unanimous ruling, the three-judge panel ordered that "any remedial plan" from the Republican-controlled Alabama Legislature must "include two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it." The map that the judges deemed discriminatory contained just one majority-Black district in a state where Black people make up roughly 27% of the population. "Under the totality of the circumstances, including the factors that the Supreme Court has instructed us to consider, Black voters have less opportunity than other Alabamians to elect candidates of their choice to Congress," the judges wrote. Alabama's Republican attorney general swiftly vowed to appeal the ruling, a move that could ultimately put the case before the U.S.