In win for GOP, Supreme Court backs Alabama effort to seek new voting map

WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court on May 11 handed Alabama Republicans a major win in their effort to pursue a more favorable congressional map for the midterm elections, the latest boost for the GOP's chances of keeping control of the U.S. House.

Over the dissent of the court's three liberal justices, the court lifted a ruling that had blocked state Republicans' preferred map as racially discriminatory and for illegally diluting the voting power of Black Alabamians.

Derrick Johnson, national president of the NAACP, said the nation is returning to the “Jim Crow” era of racial discrimination.

“And anybody who is alarmed by these developments −as everybody should be − better be making a plan to vote in November to put an end to this madness while we still can,” Johnson said in a statement after the decision.

Alabama had argued that the court's recent decision weakening Voting Rights Act protections for minorities meant it should not have to use a map that included a second majority-Black district to comply with the civil rights law.

"Alabama’s case mirrors Louisiana’s, and they should end the same way: with this year’s elections run with districts based on lawful policy goals, not race," Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall wrote in the state's emergency appeal last week.

He called the ruling a major victory.

"For too long, unelected federal judges have had more say over Alabama's elections than Alabama's voters," Marshall said on social media. "That ended today."

The state has been under an order by a lower court to keep in place until after the 2030 Census the map with the second majority-Black district.

In a dissent joined by her two liberal colleagues, Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized the majority for lifting the ruling after early voting in the May 19 primary had already begun. The court did so, she said, without “any sound basis” and “without regard for the confusion that will surely ensue.”

The court's majority said the lower court needs to consider whether its original ruling is in line with the recent Voting Rights Act decision about Louisiana's congressional map.

Sotomayor said the facts and legal arguments in the two cases are different. She added that the lower court can now decide that for itself, suggesting the court could reapply its judicial block to the map.

In 2023, a closely divided Supreme Court backed the lower court's ruling that Alabama's Republican-drawn map likely violated the Voting Rights Act. That 5-4 ruling was authored by Chief Justice John Roberts who was joined by fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Both voted, in last month's ruling in the Louisiana case, to limit the scope of the Voting Rights Act.

After issuing that ruling, the court expedited making the decision final to give Louisiana time to draw a map preferred by Republicans.

Contributing: Reuters.