Federal judges express frustration with Alabama attorneys over congressional map

[RandySF]

A panel of three federal judges Monday appeared skeptical of a congressional map produced by the Alabama Legislature and frustrated by the state’s apparent refusal to create a district where Black candidates could compete.

That frustration spilled over into closing arguments presented by Alabama Solicitor General Edmund LaCour, who told judges that the Legislature’s map — with a district with a 51% Black population and a second with a 40% Black population — was as close as the state could get to drawing a second majority-minority district without violating the Constitution or the court’s own ruling in the case, known as Allen v. Milligan.

“What I hear you saying is the state of Alabama deliberately disregarded our instruction,” said U.S. District Judge Terry Moorer.

The court in January 2022 ruled that the state’s 2021 congressional maps violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and ordered the state to draw a new map with a remedy that included a second majority-Black congressional district “or something quite close to it.” The judges in the case signaled at the hearing in Birmingham Monday that they did not think the state had reached that.

U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco asked LaCour what the state’s position would be if the court did tell them to draw a second majority-minority district.




https://alabamareflector.com/2023/08/14/plaintiffs-state-clash-over-maps-in-alabama-redistricting-hearing/

[Recycle_Guru]

1. fuck these racist assholes

[The Unmitigated Gall]

2. There are powerful computer programs

That gerrymanderers use. These people can damned well calculate a second district.