A federal court on Monday rejected Alabama’s bid to use a newly proposed Congressional district map in upcoming elections over concerns it provides fewer opportunities for racial minorities to elect representatives of their choice.
Monday’s ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed in November last year on behalf of Greater Birmingham Ministries, Alabama State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and black registered voters in Alabama’s First, Second, and Seventh Congressional Districts.
“While Black people are about 27 percent of Alabama’s population, they are represented in only one of seven (14 percent) congressional districts,” ACLU said.
“Black voters have less opportunity than other Alabamians to elect candidates of their choice to Congress,” the judges wrote in their ruling, adding that the plaintiffs will “suffer an irreparable harm if they must vote in the 2022 congressional elections based on a redistricting plan that violates federal law.”
Judges said that the plaintiffs are “substantially likely to prevail on their claim under the Voting Rights Act,” and because of this, the “appropriate remedy is a congressional redistricting plan that includes either an additional majority-Black congressional district or an additional district in which Black voters otherwise have an opportunity to elect a representative of their choice.”