The US supreme court on Thursday ruled that Alabama discriminated against Black voters when it drew its seven congressional districts last year, in a major victory for the embattled Voting Rights Act.
The case arose when the Republican-controlled legislature, like in states across the US, most recently completed the once-a-decade process of redrawing the boundaries of congressional maps.
Under the new districts, Black people make up 25% of the Alabama’s population, but comprise a majority in just one of the state’s seven districts.
On Thursday, writing for the majority of the court, supreme court chief justice John Roberts noted the court was rejecting Alabama’s effort to strong-arm it into rewriting its longstanding interpretation of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which outlaws voting practices that discriminate on the basis of race.
The decision in the case, Allen v Milligan, means that Alabama will have to draw its congressional map to include a second majority-Black district.
Here, we visualise the district lines drawn up by the state legislature and how plaintiffs said it could be done:
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