Exclusive: WAKA 8 Political Analyst Steve Flowers on what’s next after U.S. Supreme Court decision
WAKA 8 Political Analyst Steve Flowers says the Legislature will have to work quickly now that the U.S. Supreme Court says it will have to redraw the state’s congressional districts.
The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a 5-4 ruling in favor of Black voters in a congressional redistricting case, affirming a lower-court ruling that found a likely violation of the Voting Rights Act because Alabama has one majority Black seat out of seven districts in a state where more than one in four residents is Black.
Flowers says he wasn’t surprised by the ruling. That’s because last year, a three-judge panel ordered the state to redraw its maps — and two of the three judges were Republicans.
?So what happens now?
“The governor will have to call a special session just to deal with reapportionment. It won’t be a difficult session because the lines are already drawn. The plaintiffs have a map, the apportionment committee has a map. You can probably do it in two weeks. But they’ve got to expedite it because our elections are right upon us. Our primaries are March 5th next year,” he said.
Flowers says Montgomery could be the winner — with all of the city likely becoming the center of a district, rather than being split into two or three districts as it has been.
He thinks the district would be close to a 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans, making it very competitive, which will attract the eyes of the nation.
He believes the loser might be Alabama’s Wiregrass region in southeast Alabama, which could be absorbed into the district that includes Mobile.
Flowers says this decision may have an impact on other Southern states which have also crafted congressional district lines based on the wishes of the political party that holds power.
