The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Alabama to use a congressional map that will benefit Republicans in this year’s midterm elections, permitting the state to ditch one of two House districts represented by a Black member of Congress who is also a Democrat.
The court dealt with the case in an unsigned order over the dissent of the three liberal justices.
The order on the court’s emergency docket is the latest instance of the justices dipping into the nationwide flurry of mid-decade redistricting instigated by President Donald Trump’s desire for the GOP to retain control of the House in this November’s midterms.
Over the course of several months, the Supreme Court has had a hand in congressional maps in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Virginia and California. Most of those decisions have benefited the Republican Party.
The Alabama case is also the latest emergency order tied to the court’s April 29 decision on the Voting Rights Act, in which a 6-3 majority gutted the ability of groups to bring claims of racial discrimination under that 1965 landmark law. The decision essentially requires voting rights groups to find a “strong inference” of intentional racial discrimination before proceeding with a lawsuit.
