WASHINGTON: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered Alabama officials to redraw the State’s congressional map to allow an additional Black majority district to ratify the fact that the state owns 27% Black population.
The decision that offers additional opportunities for the voters in minority to choose the candidate of their choice appears as a surprise, given the conservative majority on the court.
According to CNN, voting rights supporters feared the apex court would make it tougher for minorities to challenge maps under Section 2 of the historic Voting Rights Act.
John Roberts, Chief Justice of the apex court, penned the opinion for a 5-4 majority, siding with the court’s three liberals. Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed with the significant parts of the holding, providing the fifth vote.
“We are content to reject Alabama’s invitation to change existing law,” the CJ said.
The fact that Roberts penned the decision is a surprise given that ten years ago, the CJ effectively gutted a separate section of the Voting Rights Act that needed states with a history of discrimination to get federal approval before amending election laws.
Apx Court To Adjust Minority Voters
In recent years, Section 2 has been instrumental in paving the way for minority voters to participate in the political process with ease, particularly as they combat maps that appear neutral but entrench racial polarization.
Roberts wrote Thursday that Section 2 “may impermissibly elevate race in the allocation of political power within the States is, of course, not new.” Still, he said the opinion “does not diminish or disregard these concerns”.
“It simply holds that a faithful application of our precedents and a fair reading of the record before the court do not bear them out here,” Roberts said. Alabama’s argument “runs headlong into the precedent.”
“A district is not equally open, in other words, when minority voters face – unlike their majority peers, bloc voting along racial lines, arising against the backdrop of substantial racial discrimination within the State, that renders a minority vote unequal to a vote by a nonminority voter,” he said.
