Court picks new Alabama congressional map that heightens Black voting power

A panel of federal judges approved a new congressional map for Alabama on Thursday after versions drawn by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature were struck down for diluting the power of Black voters.

The new map maintains Alabama’s one existing majority-Black district and nearly adds a second one, boosting Democrats’ chances of flipping a seat in the state.

The ruling caps a high-profile legal battle over Alabama’s congressional map that had zig-zagged through the courts since the state’s redistricting process began.

The Supreme Court in June struck down Alabama’s previous map for likely violating the Voting Rights Act, and the state subsequently drew up a new design that still did not add a second majority-Black district.

The panel of federal judges then rejected that design, ordering a court-appointed official step in to propose new boundaries instead. Alabama filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court, but the justices refused to revive state Republicans’ map in a brief order last week.

The judges Thursday selected from three remedial maps proposed by the court-appointed official after hearing objections from the parties.

The selected design, which will be used for the 2024 elections, maintains Alabama’s singular majority-Black congressional district, which is represented by the state’s lone congressional Democrat.

It also shifts another district’s boundaries so that the Black voting age population there is now just below a majority, at 48.7 percent.

The judges wrote that their selected plan “better respects” municipal boundaries and communities of interest as compared to the other proposals.

“In the light of the submissions received by the Special Master, the comments and submissions in response to his Report & Recommendation, and after extensive analysis, we conclude that Remedial Plan 3 completely remedies the likely Section Two violation we identified while best preserving the State’s legislative preferences, as expressed through the 2023 Plan, and otherwise complies with the requirements of the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” the panel of judges wrote in their ruling.

The panel comprised one Clinton appointee, Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus, and two Trump appointees, District Judge Anna Manasco and District Judge Terry Moorer.