The US Supreme Court on Thursday, June 8, invalidated a map of electoral districts adopted by Republican elected officials in Alabama, in the south of the country, and accused of discriminating against black voters.

By a narrow majority of five out of nine justices, the temple of American law refused to further unravel the great civil rights law of 1965, much to the relief of minority advocates.

This bill, the Voting Rights Act, was passed to prevent former segregationist states from disenfranchising African Americans, but has been gutted by the high court in recent years. This file was seen as yet another attempt to weaken it.

Beyond the debate over its map, Alabama had tried to convince the Supreme Court to change its jurisprudence, which prohibits diluting the vote of black voters by concentrating them in a limited number of districts to reduce their influence elsewhere.

In agreeing to take up his appeal, the Court, firmly rooted in conservatism, seemed ready to agree with him. During the hearing, progressive judge Elena Kagan was moved: "The Voting Rights Act is one of the great advances of our democracy (...) What's going to be left of it?"

The "new approach" proposed by Alabama, which wanted to prevent taking into account racial criteria to assess the legality of electoral boundaries, "is not convincing neither in theory nor in practice," ruled Thursday the head of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, on behalf of 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 thanks to 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 the Republicans.

The powerful civil rights organization ACLU also rejoiced at 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, said one of the ACLU's lawyers, Davin Rosborough.

The decision, which therefore maintains the status quo, also requires Alabama Republican authorities to review a map drawn in 2021 to allocate seats in the House of Representatives.

According to this redistricting, black voters, who vote predominantly Democratic, were in the majority in only one of the seven districts 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 two. Under the Supreme Court's ruling, authorities will have to create a second district with a majority of African-American voters.

With AFP

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