The United States Supreme Court Shocks the World in Rebuking Alabama

How Allen v. Milligan bolstered Section ll of the Voting Rights Act, reshaped the political landscape, and finally brought long sought representation for Black Americans.

Whether it was enacting Jim Crow policies, electing a racist governor in George Wallace, or attacking civil rights marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama has always been a state with a well-documented history of racism and segregation. That discriminatory outlook is visible to this day, especially in Alabama’s racially gerrymandered congressional maps. Despite Alabama’s Black population rising significantly in the past few decades, the state continues to only have one majority Black district, designed to elect a representative of the community’s choice. This status quo has been upheld by a ceaselessly conservative state government, and in the process deprived minority voters of equal representation in Congress. However, a surprise opinion from the Supreme Court is about to change all of that, with consequences that could reverberate across the deep south.

Allen v. Milligan: What Happened?

Almost everyone who’s been following the case expected it to go the other way, and for good reason too. Last year, a Federal District Court ordered Alabama to redraw its maps for violating Section ll of the Voting Rights Act. Section ll mandates that redistricting maps must have a certain amount of “VRA districts” that represent enough minorities (typically a majority) to elect a representative of their choice. The amount of VRA districts also have to be proportional to the level of minorities living in the state. Regardless, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the District Court’s order quoting the Purcell Principle, which essentially prevents drastic changes to election law close to an election. However, the election at the time was still months away, so many people thought the Court was simply stalling the creation of another VRA district.

Bearing all this in mind, it’s understandable why people assumed the actual case would go the same way. Many even feared that the court would use this case as a reason to completely overturn Section ll, which would’ve been a complete disaster for minority representation. But as luck would have it, the opposite manifested, and the court instead upheld not only Section ll but also the District Court’s decision on Alabama. The cause: Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed substantively with the lower court’s finding, reversing his previous stance of rejecting the case on procedural grounds. Part of why that happened was because of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s articulate and passionate defense of the Voting Rights Act, and other mechanisms outlined under reconstruction. Ultimately, the Court made its decision, and Voting Rights are stronger because of it.

Redistricting: How Will the New District Manifest?

As of right now, there’s only one VRA district centered around Birmingham. That district will continue to exist, but the new one will likely be just to the south and composed of Montgomery, Mobile, and the Black Belt region. Here’s a hypothetical map I created below with the platform Dave’s Redistricting:

The map meets the requirements of the Voting Rights Act, with Black Americans composing a majority of the electorate and being able to choose a representative of their choice for 2/7 districts, which is roughly proportional to their population statewide. A map similar to this is likely to be enacted since it’s the most natural and compact configuration that creates a new VRA district.

What’s Next?

The Allen v. Milligan case could have ripple effects across the deep South, where racial gerrymandering is deeply prevalent. In particular, it’s possible we see states like Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida have to redraw their maps to comply with Section ll of the Voting Rights Act (some of these are likelier than others). This will also likely have a partisan benefit for the Democratic Party, but that’s a sidenote considering the main importance of ending racial gerrymandering. As the country continues to get polarized, along with our Supreme Court, it’s again important to never stop advocating for equality. Allen v. Milligan showed the court is not insulated from public opinion, and as a result, will usher in a new era of representation in Alabama that hasn’t existed since reconstruction. Progress is imperative, and this is certainly one step in the right direction.