Supreme Court’s Alabama Ruling Sets Up Potential Clash Over ‘Racial Gerrymandering’: Experts

States are warily watching how a three-justice U.S. District Court panel resolves an Alabama lawsuit challenging the state’s post-2020 Census reapportionment maps under Section II of the Voting Rights Act.

National Conference of State Legislatures Senior Federal Affairs Counsel Susan Frederick (out-of-view, and then L-to-R) NCSL Senior Legislative Director Kristen Hildreth, NCSL Legislative Director Lauren Kallins, and NCSL Senior Legislative Director Austin Reid discuss the effects of legal rulings on state elections officials during the NCSL’s Legislative Summit at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis on Aug. 16, 2023. National Conference of State Legislatures

INDIANAPOLIS—A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an Alabama redistricting case could be an “invitation to litigation” about the constitutionality of “racial gerrymandering,” which could embroil states in a wave of lawsuits before the 2024 election, election law experts say.

The Supreme Court’s 5–4 decision on June 8 in Allen v. Milligan has been hailed by some as an affirmation of the Voting Rights Act’s (VRA) Section II prohibition on the “denial or abridgment” of any U.S. citizen’s voting rights based on “race or color.”