WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday in a congressional redistricting case from Alabama that could further weaken a federal law meant to prevent racial discrimination in elections.
The justices agreed to review a lower court ruling that found Alabama’s new congressional map likely violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because only one of the seven districts is majority Black in a state where more than a quarter of the population is Black. That three-judge panel ordered the state to draw a second district where Black voters can choose their favored candidate.
Alabama told the Supreme Court that the Voting Rights Act cannot force the state to take race into account when drawing its congressional districts, while the voters who challenged the map have said that’s exactly what Congress meant to allow the last time it overhauled the law in 1982.
