The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an emergency bid from Alabama, setting the stage for a new congressional map likely to include a second Black majority district to account for the state’s 27% Black population.
The one-line order reflects that the feelings on the court haven’t changed since June when a 5-4 Supreme Court affirmed a lower court that had ordered the state to redraw its seven-seat congressional map to include a second majority-Black district or “something quite close to it.”
There were no noted dissents.
The case has been closely watched because after the court’s June ruling, Alabama GOP lawmakers again approved a congressional map with only one majority-Black district, seemingly flouting the Supreme Court’s decision that they provide more political representation for the state’s Black residents.
Now all they have to do is ignore the court! It’s working in Ohio!
It’s wild, but they basically already did. That’s what this decision was about. SCOTUS ordered Alabama to fix their map back in June, and Alabama just straight up ignored them.
I dunno, I kinda see it as a toddler trying to haggle about their bedtime or getting a cookie.
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Ohio could do it because the “independent” redistricting commission is run by the governor’s son and is only bipartisan in that they were forced to allow democrats on by border initiative that changed the state constitution. Ohios maps didn’t have a SCOTUS ruling, just a state Supreme Court ruling and the GOP just had to wait out a year so they could shove a more conservative justice on than the one that was retiring and had sided with the liberal justices.
I wonder if this would still hold in light of Alabama. If you can make the same case that this is diluting an ethnicity’s voting power, I think a court would have to overturn it. Especially since Alabama just got removed slapped here by the court again.
Ohio doesn’t have the racial demographic bunching that Alabama does, which from my understanding is who they were able to show easily that the appropriate maps could be drawn and even presented multiple appropriate maps in the Alabama lawsuit. Also Ohio did not sue because of racial gerrymandering, they sued because the maps violated the state constitution. Now that there is a new state SC and Dems did better in 2022 than expected Ohio dropped the suit because they won’t win.
Ah damnit
The court ordered that a special master draw the lines for the next election, so it sounds like they’ve pre-empted the Ohio strategy.
This is painful but we do have a constitutional mechanism for states that can’t figure their electoral shit out legally. Their representatives don’t get seated. And they don’t get electoral college ballots for president.
It’s a 200 year old can of political fuckery that we may just have to open.