A panel of three federal judges has struck down Alabama’s latest map of congressional election districts for not following a court order to comply with the landmark Voting Rights Act.
In an order released Tuesday, the judges said they are “deeply troubled that the State enacted a map that the State readily admits does not provide the remedy we said federal law requires.”
"We are not aware of any other case in which a state legislature — faced with a federal court order declaring that its electoral plan unlawfully dilutes minority votes and requiring a plan that provides an additional opportunity district — responded with a plan that the state concedes does not provide that district," said U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus, U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco and U.S. District Judge Terry Moorer. "The law requires the creation of an additional district that affords Black Alabamians, like everyone else, a fair and reasonable opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. The 2023 Plan plainly fails to do so."
Ah, I see what you are saying now. Basically, the thing I was hung up on was that I figured they would get what they could and leave it at that. But basically, they aren’t satisfied with getting what they could and simply want to get it all, court order be damned. And there’s no way to comply with the court order AND get it all, so violating the court order was the only option.
Expect that now, with an independent organization drawing the next map, they might lose even more than the paltry two majority congressional districts. Good.