until its district turned blue
A federal court struck down Alabama’s congressional map on Tuesday, after GOP state lawmakers refused the court’s mandate to draw a second majority-Black district.
The three-judge panel wrote that it was “deeply troubled” that the state legislature declined to draw two majority-Black districts. The same court ruled last year that it should draw a second majority-Black district to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court affirmed the ruling from the lower court earlier this year.
Alabama Republicans refused to comply.
The three-judge panel writes:
We do not take lightly federal intrusion into a process ordinarily reserved for the State Legislature. But we have now said twice that this Voting Rights Act case is not close. And we are deeply troubled that the State enacted a map that the State readily admits does not provide the remedy we said federal law requires.
We are disturbed by the evidence that the State delayed remedial proceedings but ultimately did not even nurture the ambition to provide the required remedy.
Their remedial maps remediated nothing. And now?
A court-appointed special master has about three weeks to submit proposals for a new Alabama congressional map after a panel of federal judges Tuesday struck down the district lines drawn by state lawmakers, finding that the plan didn’t fix a likely violation of civil rights law.
The ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama directed the special master to file three proposed remedial maps by Sept. 25.
The decision by the three-judge panel comes months after the Supreme Court ruled that Alabama’s previous district lines likely diluted the electoral power of Black voters in the state. The panel included one circuit judge and two district judges.
Alabama, a state with a Black population of more than 25 percent, has one district represented by a Black Democrat and six districts where white voters predominantly elect Republicans.
And now drawing the maps is out of the GOP’s hands. Alabama fought the law and the law won. Except Alabama will of course appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court hoping for a Trump judge to tip the court in its favor.
Special master? North Carolina’s been there, done that.
This is Republicans’ game. How many times have I said it? Ten years or more? This is the Republican M.O.: Find the line. Step over it. Dare someone to push them back. No pushback? New line. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Even then? Elections run on regular cycles. Delay long enough in court and eventually their illegal districts survive another election. There are no longer permanent, 10-year districts. The permanent campaign meets permanent redistricting.