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A federal court on Tuesday struck down redistricting maps signed into law by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) in July after the maps failed to create a second majority-black congressional district.
The ruling comes after a contentious court battle over Alabama’s redrawn congressional maps. The three-judge panel, composed of Clinton-appointed Judge Stanley Marcus and Trump-appointed Judges Anna Manasco and Terry Moorer, struck down Alabama’s redrawn maps in 2022, ruling it should have created two majority-black voting districts.
Currently, Alabama’s seventh congressional district is the only majority-black voting district in the state, despite Alabama’s 27 percent black population. That district is represented by the state’s lone Democrat, Rep. Terri Sewell.
In June, a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s ruling, ordering Alabama’s legislature to redraw the maps again to include a second majority-black district or “something quite close to it.”
Instead, Alabama’s legislature approved a new map that included one majority-black district and boosted the black voting share in a second district from 30 percent to 40.
