Voting Rights Act

"Embarrassing," "chaotic" and "irresponsible." And those were just the words that House Republicans used to describe the past three weeks as they removed one speaker from office and splintered over three successive nominees before finally landing on House member Mike Johnson, R-La. A possible Democratic win in Alabama is another concern.

A federal judge ruled that some of Georgia's congressional, state Senate and state House districts were drawn in a racially discriminatory manner, ordering the state to draw an additional Black-majority congressional district. This follows similar actions against Alabama which were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

A federal judge said that the court will soon adopt new congressional districts for Alabama, choosing among proposals aimed at giving Black voters a greater opportunity to influence election outcomes in the Deep South state, perhaps as soon as this week.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on Alabama's request to let it keep new GOP-drawn congressional lines in place as it fights a three-judge panel's plan to create a second majority-Black district, or something close to it, in the state.

The Supreme Court's decision siding with Black voters in an Alabama redistricting case gave Democrats and voting rights activist a surprising opportunity before the 2024 elections to have congressional maps redrawn in a handful of states. It's been more than three months since the justice's 5-4 ruling, and political maps in Alabama, Louisiana and elsewhere that could produce more U.S. House districts represented by Black lawmakers still don't exist.

Democrats got a potential boost for the 2024 congressional elections as courts in Alabama and Florida ruled recently that Republican-led legislatures had unfairly diluted the voting power of Black residents.

A three-judge panel is blocking Alabama's new congressional map after lawmakers failed to create a second district where Black voters at least came close to comprising a majority, as suggested by the court. The ruling was cheered by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who leads the group Redistricting Foundation.

Voting rights activists are returning to court to fight Alabama's redrawn congressional districts, saying state Republicans failed to follow federal court orders to create a district that is fair to Black voters.

Plaintiffs, led by former Attorney General Eric Holder, opposed to Alabama’s newly redrawn Congressional voting map filed a legal challenge to the new districts. The action comes on the final day of public input before a three judge panel convenes in mid-August to consider the work of Republican lawmakers who declined to create a second black majority district in Alabama.

In its 5-4 Allen v. Milligan decision on June 8, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the state of Alabama to redraw its congressional voting districts and consider race as it made up the new districts. The court had found that the state's political districts diluted the strength of Black voters by denying them the possibility of electing a second Black member to the state's congressional delegation. Alabama lawmakers declined to do so.