SCOTUS mulls redistricting plan that packs blacks into districts, diluting voting strength elsewhere
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday considered an Alabama redistricting plan said to pack black voters in minority districts, diluting their voting strength elsewhere.
Elected black and Democratic politicians had contended the 2012 plan improperly used “rigid racial quotas” to maintain high concentrations of black voters in districts they already controlled. State officials, however, said the plan maintained the status quo in an effort to comply with Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires majority-minority districts to avoid diminution of minority voting strength. The New York Times, the Washington Post, SCOTUSblog and the National Law Journal (sub. req.) covered the arguments.
The GOP-controlled state legislature had directed its redistricting consultant to keep the same number of majority-minority districts, along with the same percentage of blacks within each district, SCOTUSblog says.
Justice Elena Kagan argued that state lawmakers misunderstood the Voting Rights Act provision. “In no interpretation does a 76 percent majority black district have to stay a 76 percent district,” she said.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. noted competing demands between the need to ensure minority representation under the Voting Rights Act and the need to ensure race is not an impermissible “predominant factor” in the redistricting. Lawmakers “have to hit this sweet spot,” Roberts said.
According to the Washington Post, “The question could come down to whether Alabama had partisan gerrymandering goals in mind—the court has allowed that—rather than racial gerrymandering. And that is complicated when, as in Alabama, racial and political identities are closely linked.”
The consolidated cases are Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama and Alabama Democratic Conference v. Alabama.
Related articles:
ABAJournal.com: “SCOTUS to consider redistricting plan that packed minorities into districts they already controlled”
