The US Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that an Alabama electoral map violated federal law prohibiting racial discrimination in voting.
The ruling preserves a key element of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act and essentially struck down the state’s Republican-drawn congressional map that “diluted the voting power of black Alabamians”.
The map, outlining the state’s seven districts for the US House of Representatives, was approved in 2021.
Conservative justices Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts sided in Thursday’s opinion with its three liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.
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Now that this ruling has passed, the next step for Alabama is redrawing its congressional map to include a second majority-black district.
Justice Clarence Thomas opposes the ruling, saying the Voting Rights Act should not apply to redistricting. His opinion is supported by three other conservative justices, Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland welcomed the majority ruling, saying it upheld the principle that voters should be “free from discrimination based on their race”.
Lone Alabama Democrat, Congresswoman Terri Sewell, tweeted that the decision was “amazing” for black voters.
Two years ago when Alabama lawmakers redrew the maps, civil rights groups accused them of breaching the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discriminatory voting practices.
Federal judges then blocked the map in early 2022, ruling that it violated the Voting Rights Act. Alabama Republicans appealed against the lower court’s decision, and the Supreme Court allowed the ruling to stand while it considered the case.
