Brian Lyman, Alabama Reflector A federal court Thursday ordered Alabama to implement a new congressional map drawn by a court-appointed special master that creates a majority-Black district and a near-majority Black district. In a 49-page opinion issued on Thursday morning, U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus and U.S. district judges Anna …
Read More »U.S. Supreme Court Rules Alabama’s Congressional Maps Violate Voting Rights Act
Brian Lyman, Alabama Reflector The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday upheld a lower court ruling that Alabama’s 2022 congressional maps violated the Voting Rights Act, a ruling that preserves a major part of the law and could lead to new congressional maps in Alabama. A three-judge panel in January 2022 ruled …
Read More »Federal Court Rejects Louisiana Congressional Map
by Wesley Muller, Louisiana Illuminator A federal judge has struck down Louisiana’s congressional redistricting map that state lawmakers adopted earlier this year. In a ruling issued Monday, Judge Shelly Dick found the Legislature violated the Voting Rights Act by limiting representation of Louisiana’s one-third Black population to just one of the …
Read More »Supreme Court Allows States To Use Unlawfully Gerrymandered Congressional Maps In The 2022 Midterm Elections
Henry L. Chambers Jr., University of Richmond In the upcoming midterm elections, states may use maps that a federal court has found unlawful. You read that right: The U.S. Supreme Court recently barred federal courts from requiring states to fix their newly adopted, but unlawful, congressional maps before the 2022 …
Read More »Judge Says Florida Gov. DeSantis’ Redistricting Map Is Unconstitutional
A Florida judge on Wednesday ruled that a congressional map approved by Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and drawn by his staff is unconstitutional because it breaks up a district where Black voters can choose their representatives. “I am finding that the enacted map is unconstitutional under the Fair District Amendment …
Read More »Supreme Court Rejects GOP challenges to N.C., Pa. Congressional Maps
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block state court-ordered congressional maps in Pennsylvania and North Carolina before the 2022 midterm elections, in two orders late on Monday, handing a win to Democrats. In a pair of rulings issued late in the day, the court opted to allow redistricting maps drawn …
Read More »DOJ Issues Guidance To States Ahead of Redistricting
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is warning states not to attempt to weaken voting power among minority communities ahead of redistricting. The guidance comes as states begin to draw congressional and state legislative districts. “Discriminatory redistricting schemes or election practices threaten that fundamental right and are illegal,” Attorney General Merrick …
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