No Need to Racially Gerrymander Electoral Map, Alabama Tells Supreme Court
Alabama defended its redrawn electoral map before the Supreme Court on Oct. 4, arguing that the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA) does not require the state to racially gerrymander districts to guarantee black representation in the state’s congressional delegation.
The hearing came after a flurry of activity in the legal dispute.
On Jan. 24, a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama issued a preliminary injunction against John Merrill, Alabama’s Republican secretary of state, temporarily forbidding him from conducting any congressional elections in the state.
That court found that instead of having one predominantly black congressional district, as it currently has, federal law and existing legal precedents require the state to have two predominantly black districts. Alabama disagrees. The state’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives currently consists of six Republicans and one Democrat….