Alabama Republicans tasked by the U.S. Supreme Court with redrawing the state’s congressional map are so far rejecting the court’s order to create a second majority-Black district in the state.
While Alabama’s population is 27 percent Black, just one of the state’s seven districts is majority-Black.
In a 5-4 decision in June, the Supreme Court affirmed a three-judge panel’s ruling that Alabama’s current map likely violates the Voting Rights Act by taking away from the voice of Black voters.
The group of voters who sued and won before the Supreme Court proposed a second district where Black residents are 50.5 percent of the population, according to The Associated Press.
Facing down a Friday deadline, Republican state lawmakers proposed a congressional map Monday that would increase the percentage of Black voters in the 2nd Congressional District from around 30 percent to nearly 42.5 percent, still below the court’s prescribed level. The proposal was approved by the Permanent Legislative Committee in a party-line 14-6 vote and was introduced to other lawmakers Monday afternoon in a special session.
House Speaker Pro Tempore Chris Pringle (R), co-chairman of Alabama’s redistricting committee, defended the proposal, arguing the increase gives Black voters a greater chance to elect their favored candidates.
Alabama had previously argued its current map did not go against Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because it used a race-neutral benchmark, and said the court needed to show its map had fewer minority-majority than the benchmark.
Chief Justice John Roberts pushed back on this argument in the court’s ruling last month, stating it would “run headlong” into the court’s Voting Rights Act precedents.
“It is clear that Alabama Republicans are not serious about doing their job and passing a compliant map, even in light of a landmark Supreme Court decision,” Marina Jenkins, executive director of the National Redistricting Foundation, told AP.
The Associated Press contributed.