Alabama given short deadline to create second black district after Supreme Court ruling
Kaelan Deese
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The Alabama state legislature was ordered to redraw congressional voting maps to include a second district where black voters make up a majority by a three-judge federal appeals court panel on Friday.
The panel imposed a July 21 deadline to give candidates and parties time to meet qualifying and certification deadlines for the upcoming 2024 election. The action comes following a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling on June 8, finding a Republican-drawn electoral map violated a federal law prohibiting racial discrimination in voting.
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“The time constraints that are upon us are very real,” U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus said Friday.
Primaries are slated for March 5, 2024, and candidates are required to qualify with political parties in November, leaving little time to get a new map drawn and approved by the court.
Judges on the panel also made clear that if they are not satisfied with the maps drawn by the state lawmakers or if they fail to agree on new maps by the deadline, the court would appoint a special master to draw the maps for them.
Gov. Kay Ivey (R-AL) will likely need to call the legislature in for a special session next month, where the new maps will be debated and approved, likely around July 17. Then, the maps will be debated during an August hearing.
A spokeswoman for Ivey has not officially announced the special session.
The revision of Alabama’s congressional maps comes after the Supreme Court made a surprise decision, with two Republican-appointed justices joining the high court’s liberals, finding that Alabama violated the federal Voting Rights Act.
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Plaintiffs argued the existing map divided historically connected communities to limit the influence of black voters in the state’s six other districts.
The Washington Examiner contacted Ivey’s office for comment.