Alabama defies court-ordered redistricting mandate

+ Trump's mugshot as historical record; nonreligious voters US Edition - Today's top story: Alabama’s defiant new voting map rejected by federal court -- after Republicans ignored the Supreme Court’s directive to add a second majority-Black House district [View in browser]( US Edition | 7 September 2023 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( It’s easy to turn off or tune out of the many stories in the news about the court battles over congressional redistricting plans. From New York to North Carolina to Alabama, one story after another details how plans are drawn, legally challenged and considered by judges, and then the cycle starts all over again. I’m here today to tell you that while it might seem you need a scorecard to figure out the status of redistricting plans, it’s worth keeping up with these battles – they speak to an essential component of our democracy: political representation. Nowhere is that battle more bitter these days – and more familiar – than in the state of Alabama. Henry L. Chambers Jr., a legal scholar at the University of Richmond, writes about the conflict over how the GOP-dominated Alabama Legislature, despite being ordered by a court to do so – an order supported by a ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court – “failed to create a second district where Black voters could [elect a political candidate of their choice](.” Editor Howard Manly, who commissioned the story, says, “The failure of Alabama lawmakers to draw political districts that protect Black voters underscores the long-standing history of racist voter suppression in a state where a march from Selma to Montgomery led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. At last count, a federal panel of judges has rejected maps proposed by Alabama officials twice and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected them as well on June 8, 2023. Defiant Alabama officials said they plan to appeal yet again.” Alabama lawmakers have openly defied the authority of the federal courts. As Chamber relates, that was enough for the latest panel of judges reviewing the redistricting to take away the job from the legislature and hand it over to “court-appointed experts and a special master.” Naomi Schalit Senior Editor, Politics + Democracy Evan Milligan, plaintiff in an Alabama case that could have far-reaching effects on minority voting power across the U.S., speaks outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 4, 2022. AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File [Alabama’s defiant new voting map rejected by federal court – after Republicans ignored the Supreme Court’s directive to add a second majority-Black House district]( Henry L. Chambers Jr., University of Richmond Since 2020, Alabama lawmakers have failed to draw political districts that give Black voters an equal chance of selecting political candidates that represent their interests. 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