THE DECISION:

The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s ruling that Alabama’s congressional map drawn in 2021 violates the Voting Rights Act by “packing and cracking” Black communities, resulting in diluted political power.

 Background

• This is one of the most important civil rights decisions of our generation. It’s a historic victory for voters and Black communities across the country reaffirming key protections established by Congress in the Voting Rights Act during a time of countless attacks on the right to vote.
• Alabama created a redistricting plan for its seven seats in the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2020 census, including a majority-Black district.
• Registered voters and several organizations challenged the map, alleging that it illegally packed Black voters into one district and divided others across multiple districts, minimizing the number of districts where Black voters had a fair opportunity to elect their chosen candidates.
• A three-judge district court unanimously agreed with the challengers and granted a preliminary injunction, ordering the state to draw a new map. That decision was frozen by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 order, that kept the discriminatory maps in place pending the Supreme Court’s consideration of the merits.
• Today, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s ruling, agreeing that Plaintiffs met their burden at the preliminary injunction stage to show Alabama’s maps discriminated against Black voters in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In so doing, the Court rejected Alabama’s purported “race-neutral” approach to Section 2 litigation. The Court reaffirmed that race can, and indeed must, be considered in drawing remedial districts when doing so is necessary to ensure voters of color are not denied an equal opportunity to participate in the electoral process.
• This redistricting cycle was the first since the U.S. Supreme Court gutted federal oversight, or preclearance, in Shelby County v Holder, meaning it was much easier for hostile state governments to pass racially discriminatory maps. Today’s decision does not undo the damage caused by Shelby County. But it does send a clear message to state and local lawmakers that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is intact and that, under the law, they must ensure that voters of color are not denied a fair opportunity to participate in the electoral process.

Timeline

• Nov. 4, 2021: Alabama enacts a congressional redistricting plan.
• Nov. 15, 2021: Milligan et al. file a lawsuit challenging the plan for violating the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment.
• Jan. 24, 2022: A three-judge federal panel issues a preliminary injunction enjoining Alabama from using the congressional redistricting plan for the 2022 elections, stating that Black voters have less opportunity to elect candidates of their choice to Congress.
• Feb. 7, 2022: The Supreme Court stays the injunction, allowing the state to use the congressional district boundaries adopted in November 2021 for the 2022 elections, and grants a petition for a writ of certiorari in the case.
• October 4, 2022: The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument.
• June 8, 2023: The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed Section 2, that race can be considered in redistricting when necessary to remedy VRA violations, and affirmed the district court’s decision that Alabama’s map likely violates the VRA by diluting Black political power.

Key Message Points

• The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, ruling that the Voting Rights Act requires consideration of race when necessary to remedy racial discrimination in districting, and reaffirmed the lower court’s ruling that Alabama’s map violated Section 2 by diluting Black voting power.
• We applaud this decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.
• By affirming, the court sent a clear message not just to Alabama’s legislature, but to all lawmakers who are currently attempting to silence Black voters with racially discriminatory maps.
• Alabama must now draw a new map with two districts where Black voters will have an opportunity to elect candidates of choice, which will allow for fairer representation and help to improve disparities in infrastructure, education, health services, environmental safety, and other issues that Black communities bear the brunt of.
• But the fight doesn’t end here. Other counties and states – including Jefferson County, Alabama and Louisiana – are still suffering under maps that discriminate against Black voters and other voters of color.
• Redistricting and congressional representation directly affects the resources a county or city receives from health care to education and everything in between, which affects quality of life for all. 
• Redistricting is our once-in-a-decade process of accounting for state-level population changes across the country to draw new district maps from the federal level to the local level which makes an impact on how funding is distributed for healthcare, schools, and roads.
• Unfair mapping and gerrymandering weaken community power by denying certain groups the ability to choose a candidate of their choice to fight for the needs of the community. 
• Voting rights are under attack at all angles – voter ID laws, line relief bans, drop box bans, polling site closures, and many more restrictive policies disproportionately burden voters of color, voters with disabilities and elderly voters, voters whose first language is not English, low-income voters, among others.
• States can and should pass their own Voting Rights Acts to protect voting rights and prevent racially discriminatory maps.
• We must continue to push back against the assault on democracy in this nation until every vote matters and every voice is heard!

Keywords and phrases

• Fight for fair maps
• Power on the line
• Fair representation
• Protect democracy
• The right to self-determination
• Black voting power
• Candidates of their choice
• Full representation
• Voting rights
• Expand voting access

GIFS to Use

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