I'd say we can trace many of these ongoing efforts to limit voting and attack Democracy to the 2013 Shelby vs Holder 5-4 SCOTUS decision which weakened the Voting Rights Act by ruling that preclearance was no longer necessary in ex-Confederate states/districts. Predictably, free from the burden of preclearance various Legislatures have chosen to enact extreme measures to try and limit minority voting.
Examples include GA no longer allowing people in line to vote to receive water, Texas deciding Harris County should be under state control whe it comes to local voting protocol, and just generally attempting to engage in racial gerrymandering thru limiting majority Black choice districts.. AL tried this in their attempt to redistrict and provide for a single Black majority district in a state where Blacks comprise more than a quarter of the population...
The measure was rejected thru the AL court hierarchy, and ultimately reached SCOTUS where the AL GOP hoped for an approval of their map and further gutting of the VRA. But in what surprised many, Roberts took the opposite position to what he adopted back in Shelby and by a 5-4 majority the Court ruled this past June that the AL map likely violated Section 2 of the VAR. They upheld the District Court's ruling that the map had to be redrawn in compliance with Section 2 of the VRA.
But the AL GOP defiantly redrew the map with a single Black majority District, and again the District Court ruled it violated the VRA. It's important to note that while the AL case was the one to reach SCOTUS, Legislatures in GA,LA,TX and FL were all going down the same road hoping to use the AL case as a path to be able to achieve the same sort of gerrymander in their states. However, just this week SCOTUS put a thorn in those plans by affirming their June opinion and strengthening their language from "likely violated" to saying it actually did violate Section 2.
So AL had no choice but to accept one of the 3 maps proposed by a non-partisan redistricting commission which creates 2 (near) majority Black voter choice districts, as I believe the 2nd district is only 48 % Black. That is what is in place for 2024, in AL. And since fellow GOP Legislatures were pinning their hopes on winning in AL, it means the same result will likely occur in GA,LA,TX and even FL. FL is especially interesting because IIRC correctly Ron has already dissolved a Black majority district, but that may have just been a measure designed to aid his 2022 and midterms race.
Here's an update on the situation from Marc Elias. He basically heads up the organization that led the legal challenge against the Legislature in AL, as well as all of the other states trying the same manuever.
Examples include GA no longer allowing people in line to vote to receive water, Texas deciding Harris County should be under state control whe it comes to local voting protocol, and just generally attempting to engage in racial gerrymandering thru limiting majority Black choice districts.. AL tried this in their attempt to redistrict and provide for a single Black majority district in a state where Blacks comprise more than a quarter of the population...
The measure was rejected thru the AL court hierarchy, and ultimately reached SCOTUS where the AL GOP hoped for an approval of their map and further gutting of the VRA. But in what surprised many, Roberts took the opposite position to what he adopted back in Shelby and by a 5-4 majority the Court ruled this past June that the AL map likely violated Section 2 of the VAR. They upheld the District Court's ruling that the map had to be redrawn in compliance with Section 2 of the VRA.
But the AL GOP defiantly redrew the map with a single Black majority District, and again the District Court ruled it violated the VRA. It's important to note that while the AL case was the one to reach SCOTUS, Legislatures in GA,LA,TX and FL were all going down the same road hoping to use the AL case as a path to be able to achieve the same sort of gerrymander in their states. However, just this week SCOTUS put a thorn in those plans by affirming their June opinion and strengthening their language from "likely violated" to saying it actually did violate Section 2.
So AL had no choice but to accept one of the 3 maps proposed by a non-partisan redistricting commission which creates 2 (near) majority Black voter choice districts, as I believe the 2nd district is only 48 % Black. That is what is in place for 2024, in AL. And since fellow GOP Legislatures were pinning their hopes on winning in AL, it means the same result will likely occur in GA,LA,TX and even FL. FL is especially interesting because IIRC correctly Ron has already dissolved a Black majority district, but that may have just been a measure designed to aid his 2022 and midterms race.
Here's an update on the situation from Marc Elias. He basically heads up the organization that led the legal challenge against the Legislature in AL, as well as all of the other states trying the same manuever.
