A three-judge federal panel, including two President Donald Trump appointees and one Former President Bill Clinton appointee, blocked Alabama from using its 2023 congressional map, finding it deliberately diluted Black voting power.
The court ordered Alabama to adopt a replacement map, allowing Black voters to elect their preferred candidates, Slate reports.
In a 79-page opinion, U.S. District Judges Anna Manasco and Terry Moorer (Trump appointees) and U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus (Clinton appointee), explain Alabama's 2023 map, "made it impossible not only to remediate the vote dilution we identified, but also to respect the longstanding community of interest the Legislature identified in Alabama's Black Belt."
Legal analysts argue the decision forces the Supreme Court to either clearly prohibit overtly racist gerrymandering or admit it has enabled attacks on Black political representation.
The court found Alabama cynically used a recent Supreme Court decision to justify intensifying discriminatory vote dilution.
Alabama is appealing to the Supreme Court and seeking an emergency stay.
Analysts warn, if the conservative-majority Supreme Court grants Alabama's stay, it will expose previous assurances about racial gerrymandering as "cynical fiction."
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