UPDATE: Alabama lawmakers approve new congressional district map

Congressional District Map approved by the Alabama Legislature, Friday, July 21, 2023

By KIM CHANDLER and JEFF AMY Associated Press

Alabama lawmakers have approved a new congressional district map which does not create a second majority-Black district, despite an order from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The legislation has already been signed by Gov. Kay Ivey. However, the map will be up for review by the federal court to see if it provides enough of an opportunity to elect a second Black member of Congress from Alabama.

The U.S. Supreme Court said Alabama must give minority voters a greater voice in elections. The court upheld a three-judge panel’s finding that the current state map — with one majority-Black district out of seven in a state that is 27% Black — likely violated the federal Voting Rights Act.

Lawmakers passed the map that would increase the percentage of Black voters from about 31% to 40% in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, which covers Montgomery and other areas in our part of the state. A conference committee approved the map as a compromise between plans that had Black population percentages of 42% and 38% in the district.

WAKA 8 Political Analyst Steve Flowers says the new map will likely not be approved in federal court. Flowers says it flies in the face of what the court had asked. He expects the court to approve and adopt the plan presented by the plaintiffs in the case. That plan has the 2nd District at just over 50% Black, however it died in a legislative committee.

Republicans argued that their proposal complies with the directive to create a second district where Black voters could influence the outcome of congressional elections. Opponents said it flouted a directive from the panel to create a second majority-Black district or “something quite close to it” so that Black voters “have an opportunity to elect a representative of their choice.”

“There’s no opportunity there for anybody other than a white Republican to win that district. It will never, ever elect a Democrat. They won’t elect a Black. They won’t elect a minority,” said Sen. Rodger Smitherman, a Democrat from Birmingham.

Republicans are engaging in a high-stakes wager that the panel will accept their proposal or that the state will prevail in a second round of appeals. Republicans argued that the map meets the court’s directive and draws compact districts that comply with redistricting guidelines.

“If you think about where we were, the Supreme Court ruling was 5-4, so there’s just one judge that needed to see something different. And I think the movement that we have and what we’ve come to compromise on today gives us a good shot,” House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said.

✍️: I have signed SB5, the redistricting map. View my full statement below. ⬇️ #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/tevS8kQJYU

— Governor Kay Ivey (@GovernorKayIvey) July 21, 2023

The debate in Alabama is being closely watched across the nation, and could be mirrored in fights in Louisiana, Georgia, Texas and other states.

(Copyright 2023 The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)