Some commentators are claiming that the Voting Rights Act, 1965 in the US could be in danger as the US Supreme Court heard the arguments of Alabama’s congressional redistricting plan.
The issue, according to a report by NPRis that a quarter of the state’s population consists of Black Americans but in only 1 of 7 districts they have a chance to elect a candidate of their liking.
It should be noted that in the states of the United States electoral districts are redrawn each decade to reflect population changes. The redrawing of the districts is usually done by the party in power. This sometimes leads to gerrymandering which means manipulation of the electoral map for partisan gain.
In the case Merrill v. Milligan, the Alabama administration is arguing that the map does not house Alabama’s Black voters into a single House district even though Alabama’s population is 27% Black. The plaintiff’s argue that the rest of the Black population in other districts is too small to form a majority which violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act which ‘prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, colour, or membership’.
The case has caused an ideological divide in the Supreme Court. While Biden appointee Ketanji Brown Jackson and liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan grilled Alabama Solicitor General Edmund LaCour, he found some sympathy from Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
Alito said ‘racially polarized voting patterns’ in Alabama may not be related to ‘race at all but to ideologies’, according to a report by Reuters.
Kagan however quickly pointed out that Alabama Republicans insistence on not drawing a second district for Black Americans could essentially bar minorities from choosing their preferred candidates anywhere in the US.
“It’s one of the great achievements of American democracy to achieve equal political opportunities regardless of race, to ensure that African Americans could have as much political power as white Americans could,” Kagan said, referring to a 2013 and 2021 ruling that undermined the Voting Rights Act.
“The Voting Rights Act is saying you need to identify people in this community who have less opportunity and less ability to participate and ensure that that’s remedied, right? It’s a race-conscious effort,” Jackson asked LaCour, according to the Reuters report.
It should also be noted that a lower court did order Alabama administration to configure a second House district where Black voters could hold a majority or close to it but Supreme Court in 5-4 decision in February allowed Alabama to use the current map for the upcoming midterms.
The Alabama Republicans argued against Jackson’s point by saying that ‘by requiring a “race-based” redistricting map, the lower court indulged in “the noxious idea that redistricting begins and ends with racial considerations’.
Black American voters argue that any step taken to redress racial discrimination cannot be deemed unconstitutional merely because it has to lay importance on considerations of race.
Several US media outlets claim that the Conservative-ruled Supreme Court could rule in favour of Alabama’s administration and thus putting in peril the Voting Rights Act as well as end the ability to put forward racial gerrymandering suits in the court.
(with inputs from Vox, Reuters, Bloomberg and NPR)
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