Alabama's request to implement a newly proposed Congressional district plan in the 2019 elections was denied by a federal judge on Monday, citing worries that it would give ethnic minorities less opportunity to elect members of their choosing.
The three-judge court said in a 225-page judgment (pdf) on Monday that the state should have two districts instead of one, in which black voters make up a significant share of the electorate.
Last year, the Alabama Legislature established congressional district borders that keep one district with a plurality of black residents.
Greater Birmingham Ministries, the Alabama State Committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and black eligible voters in Alabama's First, Second, and Seventh Congressional Districts filed a lawsuit in November last year.
Judges said the newly proposed Congressional district map, put forward by Alabama’s seven-member congressional delegation, likely violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act which prohibits voting practices that discriminate on the basis of race and color, among other things.
25 Jan 2022
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