A federal court-appointed special master picked a new congressional map for Alabama with an additional black-majority district, which likely will result in the addition of a Democratic member to the state’s delegation.
The new map is a product of a federal court three-judge panel that twice found the lines drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature likely violated the Voting Rights Act by diminishing the power of black voters. The new map, which replaces the former GOP lines, will likely be used for the 2024 election despite vows to challenge them in the future from Republican lawmakers.
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Republicans in the state lost a bid to keep their map earlier this year through their Supreme Court challenge against the district court’s judgment that was upheld by the justices in a 5-4 vote.
When Alabama released its new map in July, it came under immediate legal pressure again because the state did not create a second majority-black district. State legislators instead increased the black percentage to around 40% in Alabama’s majority-white districts.
Last month, the Supreme Court held, without issuing a new written opinion, that the new lines did not meet the requirements put in place by the district court panel.
The three-judge panel’s decision to choose a map that creates a district in the southeastern portion of Alabama with a 48.7% black voting-age population effectively ends a monthslong legal battle in which Republicans have vehemently fought to uphold their preferred lines.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Jack Pandol accused Democrats of suing against the maps to “tilt the playing field.”
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“Rather than address voter concerns about their mismanagement of the economy, the border, and crime, Democrats are suing to tilt the playing field instead. Republicans are more committed than ever to growing our majority despite Democrats’ legal end-runs around the voters who reject their extreme policies.”
Alabama is the first state to get new congressional lines this year, though states, including North Carolina, are expected to have their maps redrawn by the end of this year.
