Alabama Refuse To Create Second Majority Black Congressional District

[RAMROD 118,024]

Alabama on Friday refused to create a second majority-Black congressional district, a move that could defy a recent order from the U.S. Supreme Court to give minority voters a greater voice and trigger a renewed battle over the state’s political map.

Lawmakers in the Republican-dominated House and Senate instead passed a plan that would increase the percentage of Black voters from about 31% to 40% in the state’s 2nd District. The map was a compromise between plans that had percentages of 42% and 38% for the southeast Alabama district. GOP Gov. Kay Ivey quickly signed it.

State lawmakers faced a deadline to adopt new district lines after the Supreme Court in June upheld a three-judge panel’s finding that the current state map — with one majority-Black district out of seven in a state that is 27% Black — likely violates the federal Voting Rights Act.

Voting rights advocates and Black lawmakers said the plan invoked the state’s Jim Crow history of treating Black voters unfairly.

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said the map, “and the Republican politicians who supported it, would make George Wallace proud,” referring to the segregationist former Alabama governor.

“It arrogantly defies a very conservative United States Supreme Court decision ... from just weeks ago,” Holder said in a statement.

Republicans argued that their proposal complies with the directive to create a second district where Black voters could influence the outcome of congressional elections. Opponents said it flouted a directive from the panel to create a second majority-Black district or “something quite close to it” so that Black voters “have an opportunity to elect a representative of their choice.”

The 140-seat Alabama Legislature has 33 Black lawmakers. All but one are Democrats.

“There’s no opportunity there for anybody other than a white Republican to win that district. It will never, ever elect a Democrat. They won’t elect a Black. They won’t elect a minority,” said Sen. Rodger Smitherman, a Democrat from Birmingham.

Republicans have been reluctant to create a Democratic-leaning district and are engaging in a high-stakes wager that the panel will accept their proposal or that the state will prevail in a second round of appeals. Republicans argued that the map meets the court’s directive and draws compact districts that comply with redistricting guidelines.

“If you think about where we were, the Supreme Court ruling was 5-4, so there’s just one judge that needed to see something different. And I think the movement that we have and what we’ve come to compromise on today gives us a good shot,” House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said.

Republican Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed said he believed the changes to the district make it a so-called opportunity district.

“I’m confident that we’ve done a good job. It will be up to the courts to decide whether they agree,” Reed said.

The debate in Alabama is being closely watched across the nation, and could be mirrored in fights in Louisiana, Georgia, Texas and other states.

The three-judge panel ruled in 2022 that the current legislative map likely violates the federal Voting Rights Act and said any map should include two districts where “Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority” or something close. The Supreme Court concurred.
 

Now that the plan has passed, the fight will shift quickly back to the federal court to debate whether Alabama’s congressional districts comply with federal law and offer a fair opportunity to Black voters and candidates in a political landscape dominated by white Republicans.

Black Alabama lawmakers say it’s crucial that their constituents have a better chance of electing their choices.

“I have people in my district saying their vote doesn’t count, and I understand why they say that,” Rep. Thomas Jackson, a Thomasville Democrat, said during debate Friday. “The person they want to elect can never get elected because they are in the minority all the time.”

Black lawmakers disputed that the changes to the 2nd District, an area with deep ties to agriculture and home to military bases, would easily become a swing district. They speculated that state Republicans were seeking to mount another challenge to federal voting law.

 

https://apnews.com/article/alabama-legislature-redistricting-voting-rights-e2fc7c7550e10da353b72bafc3fb6604

 

 

[Economy 53,097]

I don't understand enough about US voting system to even fully understand this. Someone explain better please

 

So is this making some ppls votes count more than others?

[AsleepOnTheCeiling 6,998]

34 minutes ago, Economy said:

I don't understand enough about US voting system to even fully understand this. Someone explain better please

 

So is this making some ppls votes count more than others?

Basically just gerrymandering. You're putting a bunch of black votes in one district, meaning that they're willing to let that district be lost in order to maintain majorities in other districts. Moving the scales to create an imbalance favorable to republicans in state elections.  

[Economy 53,097]

5 minutes ago, TortureMeOnReplay said:

Basically just gerrymandering. You're putting a bunch of black votes in one district, meaning that they're willing to let that district be lost in order to maintain majorities in other districts. Moving the scales to create an imbalance favorable to republicans in state elections.  

So the supreme Court wants black votes to be condensed into fewer districts so that they can have more of a voice?

 

Sorry I'm just still not fully getting it. The US voting system is different than in my Country

[AsleepOnTheCeiling 6,998]

10 minutes ago, Economy said:

So the supreme Court wants black votes to be condensed into fewer districts so that they can have more of a voice?

 

Sorry I'm just still not fully getting it. The US voting system is different than in my Country

No the Supreme Court ruled it illegal. States are not allowed to use racial data to draw districts because it violates the Voting Rights Act. The ACLU has a pretty good article on this, as they're part of the lawsuit against the state:  https://www.aclu.org/news/voting-rights/alabamas-new-electoral-lines-are-racially-gerrymandered-heres-why

[Economy 53,097]

49 minutes ago, TortureMeOnReplay said:

No the Supreme Court ruled it illegal. States are not allowed to use racial data to draw districts because it violates the Voting Rights Act. The ACLU has a pretty good article on this, as they're part of the lawsuit against the state:  https://www.aclu.org/news/voting-rights/alabamas-new-electoral-lines-are-racially-gerrymandered-heres-why

Oh. The first paragraph on OP made it sound like that's what supreme Court was asking for and Alabama refused

[POP2 4,206]

Really wish we had proportional representation in Congress 

 

[bionic 50,111]

13 hours ago, Economy said:

Oh. The first paragraph on OP made it sound like that's what supreme Court was asking for and Alabama refused

Essentially the Supreme Court said Alabama was going out of its way to stop natural spread of minority population getting fair representation.  Alabama had drawn a districts so that areas with significant (majority in some places) minority populations were concentrated into a single district. This is somewhat natural when the areas are near each other, but the 2020 census showed that the minority population had spread out to the extent that, if districts were drawn without reference to race, there should really be two districts with majority minority populations.

Its less drawing 'a second majority minority district' and more drawing 'a second district where there happens to be a majority minority'

[Economy 53,097]

1 minute ago, bionic said:

Essentially the Supreme Court said Alabama was going out of its way to stop natural spread of minority population getting fair representation.  Alabama had drawn a districts so that areas with significant (majority in some places) minority populations were concentrated into a single district. This is somewhat natural when the areas are near each other, but the 2020 census showed that the minority population had spread out to the extent that, if districts were drawn without reference to race, there should really be two districts with majority minority populations.

Its less drawing 'a second majority minority district' and more drawing 'a second district where there happens to be a majority minority'

Ahhhh thanks for explaining I think I get it now...

 

So the borders are being manipulated to to fit more black people within a single district so that their votes end up only mattering in 1 district, the supreme Court says no to that and Alabama doesn't wanna change it.

 

Is that the idea?

[bionic 50,111]

5 minutes ago, Economy said:

Ahhhh thanks for explaining I think I get it now...

 

So the borders are being manipulated to to fit more black people within a single district so that their votes end up only mattering in 1 district, the supreme Court says no to that and Alabama doesn't wanna change it.

 

Is that the idea?

Left map shows the congressional districts (the larger color blocks and not the subdivisons). The right map shows the black population.

You can see how minority populations (usually in cities that are immediate neighbors to one another) have been split between districts 1,2,3, and 7 so that only district 7 has a majority minority.

Huge swathes of land with low minority populations being matched up with cities high minority populations so that essentially the white vote matters more. 

There are various ways to solve this problem to give fair representation to minority communities, none of which Alabama considered in their various proposals. A significant argument against Alabama in the Court was that the School Board districts are set up to keep black children together so it is inconsistent to split their parents apart for congressional purposes

[Economy 53,097]

4 minutes ago, bionic said:

Left map shows the congressional districts (the larger color blocks and not the subdivisons). The right map shows the black population.

You can see how minority populations (usually in cities that are immediate neighbors to one another) have been split between districts 1,2,3, and 7 so that only district 7 has a majority minority.

Huge swathes of land with low minority populations being matched up with cities high minority populations so that essentially the white vote matters more. 

There are various ways to solve this problem to give fair representation to minority communities, none of which Alabama considered in their various proposals. A significant argument against Alabama in the Court was that the School Board districts are set up to keep black children together so it is inconsistent to split their parents apart for congressional purposes

When I think of the most racist state in America Alabama is one that comes to mind. Tho I don't know if it's really the absolute worst one