Alabama GOP accused of ripping off Black voters with new congressional map

Republicans in Alabama have passed a new congressional map that is reportedly being criticized for defying U.S. Supreme Court precedent created to protect minority voters.

The new map is being called out for being unlawful, according to a Friday Reuters report.

"Civil rights groups have already vowed to challenge the new map in court, a month after the Supreme Court ruled that the state's previous district lines marginalized the state's sizable Black population in violation of the Voting Rights Act," Josephine Walker and Joseph Ax reported for Reuters.

The article quotes a plaintiff in the existing Supreme Court case, Scott Douglas, the executive director at Greater Birmingham Ministries:

"Alabama lawmakers appear hell-bent on preventing Black voters from fully participating in the democratic process and they are blatantly ignoring their constituents, federal law, and the highest court of the land to disenfranchise us."

The outlet also reports on the demographics of the state:

"More than one-quarter of Alabama's residents are Black, but under a Republican-drawn map approved in 2021, only one of the state's seven congressional districts, the 7th, is majority Black. The state's lone Democratic U.S. representative, Terri Sewell, represents that district."

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The GOP in the state is accused of not going far enough to comply with the Supreme Court's ruling on this issue.

"After the Supreme Court decision, a federal three-judge panel gave lawmakers until Friday to create a second district with either a Black majority or 'something quite close' to give Black voters another opportunity to elect a representative of their choice," Reuters reported. "The new map increases the proportion of Black voters in the 2nd district from about 32% to 40%, a level that Democrats and civil rights groups said was not enough to comply with the court's directive."