Black voters in Alabama win stunning Supreme Court victory over racist gerrymandering – People’s World

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Evan Milligan, center, plaintiff in Merrill v. Milligan, an Alabama redistricting case, speaks to members of the press following oral arguments in the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill in Washington, October 4, 2022. Behind Milligan is Milligan’s attorney, Deuel Ross , left to right, Letetia Jackson, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., and Janai Nelson, president and director-attorney of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. On Thursday, June 8, 2023, the Supreme Court issued a surprising decision in favor of black voters in this case, ordering the creation of a second congressional district in Alabama with a large black population. | Patrick Semansky/AP

WASHINGTON (AP) This week, the Supreme Court’s decision ordering Alabama to redraw its congressional districts was seen by many lawmakers of color and suffrage activists as a stunning victory that could become a major springboard for undo political cards that dilute the strength of communities of color.

Hank Sanders, a former Alabama state legislator who has long been politically active in the state, knew there would be a ruling since the court heard arguments in the case last fall. He didn’t expect to be happy with the outcome, given that the conservative court’s previous rulings had essentially gutted some of its most important provisions.

I was afraid they would go ahead and erase Section 2, he said, referring to the part of the Voting Rights Act at stake in the Alabama case.

He was at his law office Thursday in Selma, the scene of one of the civil rights movement’s most pivotal moments, when news of the 5-4 ruling in favor of black Alabama voters broke.

It was a surprise that made my day good, he said.

How the ruling will affect similar lawsuits against political maps drawn in other states is unclear, though voting rights groups say the ruling provides firm guidance for lower courts to follow.

The majority of the court found that Alabama was concentrating black voters in one district, while distributing them among the others to make it much more difficult for more than one candidate of their choice to be elected. Alabama’s black population is large enough and geographically compact enough to create a second district, the judges found. Only one of its seven congressional districts is majority black, in a state where more than one in four residents are black.

Similar maps have been drawn in other states, mostly by Republican-controlled legislatures.

Kareem Crayton, senior director of voting and advocacy for the Brennan Centers, called the courts’ decision a welcome surprise and said the card challenges in Louisiana and Georgia were most similar to the Alabama case.

While considering the Alabama case, the Supreme Court suspended a lower court ruling in Louisiana authorizing the creation of a majority black second district. It is now likely to be lifted. Last year, a federal judge also ruled that some of the US House and Georgia state legislative districts likely violated the Voting Rights Act, but allowed the districts to be used during 2022 elections because it was too close to the elections to redraw them.

Maps of the three states may need to be redrawn for the 2024 elections.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, said in a statement that the court action reaffirmed his own belief that the map of Louisiana, which was drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature, violated the law.

As I said when I vetoed it, Louisiana’s current congressional map violates voting rights law, he said. Louisiana’s voting population is one-third black. We know that under the principles of the Voting Rights Act, Louisiana can have a congressional map where two of our six districts are majority black.

Representative Troy Carter, a black Democrat representing Louisiana’s only black-majority district, said the Legislative Assembly should convene immediately to draw a second majority-minority district.

This Supreme Court decision is a victory not only for Alabamians but also for Louisianans, Carter said in an emailed statement. We rarely get a second chance to get things right now that Louisiana can.

In Georgia, Bishop Reginald Jackson, a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits challenging the states Congress map, said he was thrilled when he heard news of the decision and hopes it will strengthen their case.

He said he got involved in the lawsuit amid concerns that the state’s black population had grown as the number of black congressional representatives had shrunk with the latest round of redistricting.

So how could you possibly have less black representation as more black people move into the state than before? said Jackson, who presides over 534 African Methodist Episcopal churches in Georgia with more than 90,000 parishioners

The Alabama case, along with ongoing lawsuits in Georgia and Louisiana, means black voters will likely have the opportunity to elect candidates in three additional districts, said National Redistricting executive director Marina Jenkins. Foundation, one of the organizations that spearheaded the right to vote. challenges in the states.

She said litigation in Texas by other plaintiff groups could mean additional seats there where minority voters have the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice that do not currently exist.

Texas State Rep. Victoria Neave Criado, a Democrat who chairs the Mexican U.S. Legislative Caucus, said the case was a major victory for voting rights.

She said that following recent rulings by the current court in other areas she considers fundamental, such as last year’s overturning of the constitutional right to abortion, she was concerned about the direction judges over voting rights and was relieved to see Thursday’s result.

As we see the Latino community rising in many ways, we want to ensure that Latino power translates into Latino political power, Neave Criado said.

Latinos and whites share an equal proportion of Texas’ population, about 40% each, according to 2022 census figures.

Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the decision closed the door in Texas using arguments similar to those made by Alabama as the cases progressed. Perales is leading litigation for a similar case out of Texas, which is based on redistricting maps created in 2021.

Hank Sanders, a former Alabama state lawmaker, said he didn’t expect to be happy with the outcome of the case, given that previous right-wing Supreme Court decisions had essentially gutted some of the most important provisions of the Voting Rights Act. | Vasha Hunt/AP

In addition to the Voting Rights Act challenge to Texas congressional districts, similar Section 2 claims have been brought against numerous electoral districts used for state legislatures and local governments across the country. country.

Attorney Mark Gaber argued a case this week alleging that Washington state’s legislative districts diluted the vote count for Hispanic residents and will argue a similar case next week involving Native Americans and state legislative districts. of North Dakota. He believes Thursday’s ruling will strengthen the case.

In Alabama, the question is what happens next. Steve Marshall, the state’s Republican attorney general, said in a statement that he plans to continue defending the disputed map in federal court, including a full trial.

Montgomery resident Reverend Murphy Green said he was just happy to take the first step with the court’s decision.

I was surprised, especially when I think about the makeup of the court, he said, praising God for sending the Legislature back to the drawing board and mandating the creation of a second black parliamentary district .

He said the Supreme Court’s five majority justices must have looked at the state’s map and population and decided it looked ridiculous to those justices as well.

Rep. Terri Sewell, the only Democrat on the Alabama congressional delegation, said she expects the case to go to the three lower court judges who unanimously agreed that the lines drawn by the Legislative Assembly likely violated federal law. Sewell, who is black, expected the new districts to be in place in time for the 2024 election.

Whatever the process for drawing the new lines, they will have to follow the court’s decision, she said, noting that a revamped congressional map would also mean her district is redrawn.

It’s a small price to pay to carve up my constituency so that I can have two majority minority constituencies, she said.

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