Voting Rights Acts

The U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Alabama and its top election official. Federal officials accused the state of illegally purging people from voter rolls too close to the November election.

A federal court is ruling that the State of Alabama cannot restrict assistance for disabled, blind and low-literacy voters in 2024 election when it comes to the absentee application process. A U.S. District on Tuesday blocked a portion of a new Alabama law violates the Voting Rights Act.

A coalition of civil rights, voting rights and disability rights organizations are suing Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, Alabama’s 42 District Attorneys and Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen to block Alabama’s recently enacted law that bans paid assistance with absentee ballot applications.

A ruling that weakened a key part of the Voting Rights Act is spurring lawmakers in several states to enact state-level protections to plug gaps that the courts opened in the landmark federal law. The biggest blow to the federal law in the view of voting rights advocates was a 2013 Supreme Court ruling in an Alabama case that stripped the government of a potent tool to stop voting bias.

On Friday, March 1, Black Voters Matter will hold a press conference on the Montgomery Alabama State University campus discussing the critical state of voting rights. This comes ahead of a U.S. Senate hearing on what BVM calls modern-day voting discrimination.

Federal judges have selected new congressional lines for Alabama ensuring a second district where Black voters comprise a substantial portion of the electorate. The judges ordered the state to use the new lines in the 2024 elections.

Three new versions of Alabama’s Congressional map will go under the scrutiny of a three-judge federal panel on Tuesday. The stated goal of this process is to create a second African American majority district in the state. Alabama’s Republican Attorney General opposes all three plans.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Feb. 27 in efforts by an Alabama county to stop enforcement of part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The court…