What Redistricting Looks Like In Every State

On Feb. 7, the U.S. Supreme Court halted a federal district court decision that had thrown out Alabama’s new congressional map based on potential violations of the Voting Rights Act. The 5-4 ruling, which saw Chief Justice John Roberts join the court’s three liberals in dissent, reinstates the GOP-drawn proposal passed back in November that preserves the status quo of six ruby-red districts along with one majority-Black and very blue seat.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court also agreed to take up the redistricting lawsuit, which means the court will hear arguments over Alabama’s map and rule on its constitutionality — and possibly the constitutionality of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits any voting practice that discriminates against a minority group. The conservative court could decide this case in a way that weakens or even axes that section of the law, much as it invalidated the coverage formula that undergirded another one of the VRA’s enforcement provisions back in 2013, in Shelby County v. Holder.

The upshot of all this is that it’s unlikely that Alabama will end up with a map that has two majority-Black seats, and the court’s decision could also give conservatives the upper hand in redistricting decisions in other states, such as Louisiana and South Carolina, that have sizable Black populations but only one majority-Black congressional district each.