June 8, 2023
A total surprise ruling from the supreme court today when it comes to a controversial case about voting rights.
And surprise – the high court ruled in favor of black voters, said the state of Alabama drew a bullshit electoral map in 2022 and keeps intact a key aspect of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
No one thought any of that would happen.
I’ve told you about this case several times in the past. It’s a case out of Alabama that said Alabama lawmakers redrew a congressional district map after the 2020 census that included only *one* majority-black district even though black Alabamians make up over a quarter of the state population. Now according to our founding fathers, we all know — representation should be based on population and should be proportional. On top of that — section two of the 1965 Voting Rights Act bans state and local governments from limiting voting rights on the basis of race. That means states and local governments are not allowed to draw new congressional maps that could dilute the vote by either intentionally “splitting communities of color up” amongst several districts or lumping them all together into one district. Because of that new map — black voters and advocacy groups sued the state of Alabama alleging race-based gerrymandering and said the new map diluted black political power.
Well, today, the Supreme Court agreed with the lower district court and said yep – that’s exactly what Alabama lawmakers did. Now they will be forced to redraw the map in time for the 2024 election that could – in theory — give black voters in Alabama an additional congressional district.
There are three huge things that are surprising about this ruling. One — the Supreme Court actually handed down a preliminary ruling back in February of 2022 that allowed this gerrymandered map in Alabama to stay in place for the 2022 midterm elections. And then today ruled – just kidding – that map is bullshit. Two — conservative justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh joined all three liberal justices in the majority opinion even though during the oral arguments all the conservatives seemed to be very critical of the voting rights act. And three chief justice Roberts was the one who wrote this opinion. He has been instrumental in the past in striking down other parts of the 1965 voting rights act.
Now – there’s another similar case involving the voting rights the justices heard this term – a cased you’re probably well aware of called Moore vs Harper. They have not yet ruled on that case.
Read the Supreme Court ruling Allen v Milligan
