A federal court in Alabama on Thursday ordered the state to use a new congressional map that includes a second district where Black voters will have an opportunity to decide the result.
The order comes after about two years of litigation over the state’s districts drawn after the 2020 census. A three-judge panel found the map violated the Voting Rights Act because it denied opportunities to Black voters.
The new map is widely expected to give Democrats a chance to pick up a second of the seven seats in the state. In the prior map, Black voters made up a majority of one of the state’s seven congressional districts.
