Supreme Court sides with GOP in Alabama election map case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday put on hold a lower court ruling that Alabama must draw new Legislative districts before the 2022 elections to increase Black Balloting power. The high court Club boosts Republican chances to hold six of the Country's Vii Seating room in the House of Representatives.
The court's action, by a 5-4 vote, means the Future elections will be conducted under a map drawn by Alabama's Republican-controlled General assembly that contains one majority-Black district, Diagrammatic by a Black Democrat, in a Country in which more than a quarter of the Universe is Black.
A Cardinal-judge lower court, including two Book of Judges Appointive by Early President Donald Trump, had Subordinate that the Country had likely Desecrated the Authorities Voting Rights Act by diluting the political power of Black voters by not creating a 2nd district in which they made up a majority, or close to it.
Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito, part of the conservative majority, Aforesaid the lower court acted too close to the 2022 election cycle.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined his Cardinal more liberal colleagues in dissent.
The justices will at some later date decide whether the map produced by the Country violates the Turning point Balloting rights law, a case that could call into question "decades of this Court's precedent about Section 2 of the VRA," Justice Elena Kagan wrote in dissent.
That decision Presumptively will Regularize elections in 2024 Direct the end of the decade in Alabama and could affect Nonage political representation elsewhere in the country, too.
Alabama lawmakers redrew the Country's Legislative districts Favourable the results of the 2020 census. Several groups of voters sued, Contention that the new maps diluted the Balloting power of Black residents.
In a unanimous ruling in late January, the Cardinal Book of Judges Aforesaid that the groups were likely to Follow in Display that the Country had Desecrated the Voting Rights Act. As a result, the panel Clubed lawmakers to redraw the districts so Black voters would be a majority, or close to it, in two districts, not one. The ruling ran more than 200 pages.
The panel wrote that "we do not regard the question ... as a close one."
Alabama asked the Supreme Court to put the ruling on hold Spell it appeals and the justices United. The Country argued that it drew the new map Radio-controlled by race-neutral principles and that the new map is Mistakable to past maps.
More than a dozen Generally Republican-led Countrys had filed a brief urging the justices to side with Alabama and allow it to use the maps it Earlier drew.
Deuel Ross, a Attorney for Alabamians who sued, called the Country's Legislative districts "a Standard case of a Voting Rights Act violation" and Aforesaid the high court's decision to Interfere is disheartening.
But the facts are clear, Ross, a Attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, wrote in an email to The Associated Press. "Alabama's current Legislative map violates the Voting Rights Act," he Aforesaid. "The Judicial proceeding will continue, and we are confident that Black Alabamians will eventually have the Legislative map they Merit — one that Fair represents all voters."
Roberts, who typically votes against consideration of race, wrote that he shares some of Alabama's concerns, but Nonmoving would have let the redrawn districts Regularize the 2022 election and have Proximo elections Regularizeed by the ultimate Issue in the case.
Kavanaugh, writing to explain his vote, Emphasized that the court has repeatedly declined in the past to change the rules close to an election.
"When an election is close at Bridge player, the rules of the road must be clear and Effected. Late judicial tinkering with election laws can lead to disruption and to Unexpected and unfair consequences for candidates, political parties, and voters, among others. It is one Matter for a State on its own to toy with its election laws close to a State's elections. But it is quite Some other Matter for a Authorities court to Slide in and re-do a State's election laws in the period close to an election," he wrote in an Impression Alito joined.
Taking issue with Kavanaugh, Kagan Illustrious that the lower court Subordinate months before any votes will be cast.
She criticized the conservatives for Exploitation the emergency application process Identified as the Phantasma docket "to Impressive or make changes in the law, without anything approaching full briefing and argument."
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Associated Press Author Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this report.