Three Judges Just Dared SCOTUS to Say What It Really Thinks About Black Voting Rights

A federal court in Alabama ruled again that the state illegally discriminated against Black voters when drawing its congressional map. The decision came from a three-judge district court that included two Trump appointees, after the Supreme Court had recently sided with Alabama Republicans in a related Voting Rights Act dispute. The ruling reflects repeated findings that Alabama’s mapmaking practices dilute Black voting power. Alabama has a large Black population, and the Voting Rights Act requires equal opportunity for racial minorities to elect candidates of their choice. After the 2020 census, the Alabama Legislature redrew districts by breaking up compact minority-heavy areas and spreading Black populations into more white rural districts. Alabama voters have challenged these changes in court, leading to repeated adverse rulings.

"A federal court in Alabama on Tuesday ruled, yet again, that the state had illegally discriminated against Black voters in drawing its congressional map. The decision, issued by a three-judge district court that included two Donald Trump appointees, comes after the Supreme Court had sprinted to side with Alabama Republicans two weeks ago in light of its debilitation of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais. This right-leaning lower court's thundering, exasperated decision shows just how obvious Alabama's Jim Crow-style discrimination has been over the past few years."

"Alabama has one of the largest Black populations of any state. And the VRA requires that racial minorities be given an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. But after the 2020 census, the Alabama Legislature has been on a tear trying to silence Black voices by breaking up compact minority-heavy districts around cities and spreading those populations across white rural areas. And the state's voters have been in court trying to fight for equal representation ever since."

"These cases have gone before a three-judge district court made up of Judges Anna Manasco and Terry Moorer, both Trump appointees, along with Judge Stanley Marcus, an appointee first of Ronald Reagan, then Bill Clinton. In other words, these are not the types of judges you would expect to look for reasons to distinguish or defy Supreme Court orders. Instead, it is only Alabama's blatantly racist illegal actions that compelled the panel to reach its repeated rulings that the state is engaged in race-based discri"

Read at Slate Magazine