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The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the drawing of a new Alabama congressional map with greater representation for Black voters to proceed, rejecting the state’s plea to retain Republican-drawn lines that were struck down by a lower court.
In refusing to intervene, the justices, without any noted dissent, allowed a court-appointed special master’s work to continue. On Monday, he submitted three proposals that would create a second congressional district where Black voters comprise a majority of the voting age population or close to it.
A second district with a Democratic-leaning Black majority could send another Democrat to Congress at a time when Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives. Federal lawsuits over state and congressional districts also are pending in Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.
Alabama lost its Supreme Court case in June in which its congressional map with just one majority Black district out of seven seats was found to dilute the voting power of the state’s Black residents, who make up more than a quarter of Alabama’s population.
I’m pleased to see some Gerrymandering being undone, and I’m very surprised not to see the Supreme Court block this. Hopefully more Gerrymandering can be undone in other states as well.
It really blows my mind that so many states don’t have a non political commission doing the redistricting. It’s like playing a game with someone who openly is all about cheating. What the fuck?
The game’s rules were written by people who failed to codify a lot of unwritten rules. Four or five generations on, the power-hungry are finding all sorts of ways to re-interpret the rules-as-written in the most bad-faith ways possible.
As long as elected politicians get to draw voting districts there will be Gerrymandering. I wish we just voted for a party, parliament style, and if you get 60% of the vote you got 60% of the seats
I get what you mean, but you’re talking about proportional representation (specifically closed-list). Parliament style refers to how the executive branch is formed. Here in the UK, we have a parliamentary system (the Government, our executive branch, is picked* by Parliament, our legislature), but elect the lower house using first-past-the-post, the same system the US uses.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the drawing of a new Alabama congressional map with greater representation for Black voters to proceed, rejecting the state’s plea to retain Republican-drawn lines that were struck down by a lower court.
In refusing to intervene, the justices, without any noted dissent, allowed a court-appointed special master’s work to continue.
On Monday, he submitted three proposals that would create a second congressional district where Black voters comprise a majority of the voting age population or close to it.
The judges said Alabama lawmakers deliberately defied their directive to create a second district where Black voters could influence or determine the outcome.
Black voters overwhelmingly favor Democratic candidates, and white Alabamians prefer Republicans.
The state had wanted to use the newly drawn districts while it appeals the lower-court ruling to the Supreme Court.
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