Today’s Links
Articles:
SCOTUS Blog – Conservative justices seem poised to uphold Alabama’s redistricting plan in Voting Rights Act Challenge
Brennan Center for Justice – Merrill v. Milligan
Brennan Center for Justice – Annotated Guide to the Amicus Briefs in Merrill v. Milligan
SCOTUS Blog – When are majority-Black voting districts required? In Alabama case, the justices will review that question.
Groups Taking Action:
Campaign Legal Center, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, American Bar Association, Constitutional Accountability Center, Southern Poverty Law Center, League of Women Voters AL, and Stand-Up Mobile.
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
During our exploration of the Moore v. Harper case this week, a challenge to Alabama’s Congressional redistricting plan was heard in the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Merrill v. Milligan, voting rights groups challenged the legislature’s Congressional maps, saying it diluted the votes of Black voters. Black Alabamians represent 27% of the population, yet have a realistic chance of electing a Black candidate in only one of seven Congressional districts. Alabama claims that it uses a “race-blind” approach, doesn’t violate Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, despite Alabama’s extensive history of discrimination against Black voters.
Analysis by Amy Howe of SCOTUS Blog suggests the court’s majority may uphold Alabama’s maps. Justice Alito cited an earlier ruling which requires that claims of diluting a vote on race can only be made if the population is large enough and sufficiently compact. Justice Kavanaugh suggested that the additional majority Black district proposed by challengers wasn’t compact enough to meet that standard.
Newly sworn-in Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stated that the 14th & 15th amendments were “Trying to ensure that people who had been discriminated against … were actually brought equal to everyone else in society.”
The court’s decision has the potential of neutralizing one of the last remaining provisions of the Voting Rights Act.
More on the case and groups taking action at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl