Alabama’s new congressional maps do the one thing the Supreme Court still forbids |
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Alabama’s new congressional maps do the one thing the Supreme Court still forbids
How the heck did Alabama’s Republican lawmakers screw this one up?
Allen v. Milligan, an Alabama redistricting case that is now before the Supreme Court for the third time, is a face-palm, wrapped in a head-desk, wrapped in some of the most incompetent legislative draftsmanship that has ever been presented to the justices. If Alabama Republicans have any sense, they will fire all of their lawyers.
About a month ago, the Supreme Court decided Louisiana v. Callais, gutting the federal Voting Rights Act’s safeguards against legislative maps that lock voters of color out of power in the process. Callais effectively repealed a 1982 amendment to the VRA, which prohibited many state laws that have a negative impact of nonwhite voters, even if those laws were not drawn with racist intent.
Get the latest developments on the US Supreme Court from senior correspondent Ian Millhiser.
After Callais, a plaintiff........