The problem with Alabama only having one majority-Black voting district

Alabama’s redistricting plan for its seven seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2021 has caused controversy recently. The state has a 27% Black resident population, yet only one of the seven voting districts is majority Black. Thus, one district in the state gives Black people strong voting power. Critics of the map say a second majority-Black district should have been created to reflect the demographics of Alabama voters, but it was not.

The recent case of Merrill v. Milligan decided that Alabama’s voting district map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. This act prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate based on race. In response, Alabama asked the Supreme Court to overturn its decision because it argued that states were prioritizing race above all other criteria when redistricting, and this would make elections overly biased. When the court was divided politically in February of 2022, the court granted Alabama’s request. This allowed Alabama to use the new map in May 2022 primary and November 2022 general elections.

Since voting in Alabama is heavily polarized, Black voters can only elect Black candidates if they make up a majority in a district. As such, the court’s ruling, which allows for the map with only one majority-Black district, has diluted the impact of Black Alabamians’ votes. Justice Elena Kagan. Justice Stephen Breyer and Justice Sonia Sotomayor are challengers of the Supreme Court’s ruling. Along with the Biden administration, they are pushing back against Alabama’s new voting district map. They are urging the court to support the lower court’s ruling in which Chief Justice John Roberts agrees with Kagan, Breyer, and Sotomayor that the map will dilute minority votes in Alabama. While Alabama wishes for plaintiffs in the case to create a new map with an additional majority-minority district without prioritizing race, the challengers argue that this is unjust because the maps must take into account the racial differences of a population in some way.

It seems that Alabama’s voting districts fail to align with the state’s demographics. They are subject to a political agenda, while the Supreme Court should ensure voting equality.