The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an emergency bid from Alabama, setting the stage for a new congressional map likely to include a second Black majority district to account for the stateās 27% Black population.
The one-line order reflects that the feelings on the court havenāt changed since June when a 5-4 Supreme Court affirmed a lower court that had ordered the state to redraw its seven-seat congressional map to include a second majority-Black district or āsomething quite close to it.ā
There were no noted dissents.
The case has been closely watched because after the courtās June ruling, Alabama GOP lawmakers again approved a congressional map with only one majority-Black district, seemingly flouting the Supreme Courtās decision that they provide more political representation for the stateās Black residents.
Ohio could do it because the āindependentā redistricting commission is run by the governorās son and is only bipartisan in that they were forced to allow democrats on by border initiative that changed the state constitution. Ohios maps didnāt have a SCOTUS ruling, just a state Supreme Court ruling and the GOP just had to wait out a year so they could shove a more conservative justice on than the one that was retiring and had sided with the liberal justices.
I wonder if this would still hold in light of Alabama. If you can make the same case that this is diluting an ethnicityās voting power, I think a court would have to overturn it. Especially since Alabama just got bitch slapped here by the court again.
Ohio doesnāt have the racial demographic bunching that Alabama does, which from my understanding is who they were able to show easily that the appropriate maps could be drawn and even presented multiple appropriate maps in the Alabama lawsuit. Also Ohio did not sue because of racial gerrymandering, they sued because the maps violated the state constitution. Now that there is a new state SC and Dems did better in 2022 than expected Ohio dropped the suit because they wonāt win.
Ah damnit