WASHINGTON — In its first decision on this decade’s congressional redistricting, the Supreme Court on Monday sided with Alabama’s Republicans and blocked the creation of a new Black-majority district in the state.
By a 5-4 vote, the justices set aside for now a ruling by a panel of three judges, two of whom were Trump appointees, who said the state Republican-controlled legislature could have and should have drawn a second district that could elect a Black candidate to the U.S. House of Representatives.
The court’s five most conservative justices, all Republican appointees, voted to block the order and to hear arguments later on the legal issue. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. dissented in his own opinion. The three liberal justices, all of whom were Democratic appointees, filed a separate, lengthy dissent.
