(Washington) The United States Supreme Court on Thursday invalidated a map of electoral districts adopted by Republican elected officials in Alabama, in the south of the country, accused of discriminating against black voters.
By a narrow majority of five judges out of nine, the temple of American law refused to unravel the great civil rights law of 1965 a little more, much to the relief of defenders of minorities.
This text, the Voting Rights Act, was adopted to prevent former segregationist states from depriving African Americans of the right to vote, but has been emptied in recent years of part of its substance by the high court.
This file was perceived as a new attempt to weaken it.
Beyond the debate over its map, Alabama had tried to convince the Supreme Court to change its case law, which prohibits diluting the vote of black voters by concentrating them in a limited number of constituencies to diminish their influence elsewhere.
By agreeing to take up his appeal, the Court, firmly rooted in conservatism, seemed ready to give him reason. During the hearing, the progressive judge Elena Kagan was moved: “The Voting Rights Act is one of the great advances of our democracy […] What will be left of it? »
The “new approach” proposed by Alabama, which wanted to prevent racial criteria from being taken into account to assess the legality of electoral redistricting, “is not convincing either in theory or in practice”, however decided on Thursday the chief of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, for the majority.
“Orwellian idea”
This judgment “confirms a basic principle: there must be no racial discrimination during elections”, welcomed President Joe Biden, for whom “the work is not finished” however.
The Democrat, elected largely by the votes of African Americans, called on Congress to legislate to restore and strengthen the 1965 law. A proposal to this effect is blocked by the opposition of Republicans.
Powerful civil rights organization ACLU also hailed the “victory” for black voters.
“The Supreme Court rejected the Orwellian idea that it is inappropriate to consider racial criteria to determine the existence of racial discrimination”, which would have rendered the law inoperative, underlined one of the lawyers of the ACLU, Davin Rosborough.
The decision, which therefore maintains the status quo, also forces Republican authorities in Alabama to review a map drawn in 2021 to allocate seats in the House of Representatives.
According to this division, black voters, who vote mostly Democratic, were in the majority in only one of the seven constituencies of the state, while they represent 27% of its population. The new map also passed through the middle of a predominantly black region, the “Black Belt”, and cut it in half.
Under the Supreme Court ruling, authorities will have to create a second constituency with a majority of African-American voters.