SCOTUS: Race, voting maps, & a win for voting rights


In one of the United States Supreme Court’s most surprising decisions this summer, the court ruled in a 5-4 decision that Alabama had diluted the power of Black voters in drawing a congressional voting map with a single district in which they made up a majority. Prior to the decision’s publishing, voting rights advocates were deeply concerned that a decision in this case would further undermine the Voting Rights Act of 1965 – a central legislative achievement of the civil rights movement that has been under attack since the implementation of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority in recent years. The law, however, appeared to persevere unscathed from its most recent meeting with the court.