Federal judges said on Tuesday they will draft new congressional lines for Alabama after lawmakers refused to create a second district where black voters came at least close to the majority as suggested by the court.

In blocking the newly drafted congressional map, the three-judge panel wrote that they are deeply troubled that Alabama lawmakers ignored their instruction to create a second majority-black district or something close to it. A special master will be appointed to draw new districts for the state, the judges have ordered.

This is an important step toward equal representation for black Alabamians, said former U.S. Att

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Eric Holder, chairman of the National Democratic Redistribution Committee, who supported one of the lawsuits that led to the decision.

Supreme Court upholds Voting Rights Act in surprise ruling against Alabama Republicans

The Alabama attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment. The state is expected to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Alabama’s Republican-controlled legislature hastily redrawn lines this summer after the U.S. Supreme Court in June upheld the jury’s ruling that the map had one in seven majority black districts in a state where 27% of residents are black , probably conflicted with the US. Voting Law.

In scrapping Alabama’s map in 2022, the three-judge panel said the state should have two districts where black voters have a chance to choose their preferred candidates. Because of the state’s racially polarized voting, that map should include a second district where black voters form the majority, or something close to it, the judges wrote.

Federal judges review Alabama’s new congressional map, which lacks a second majority-black district

Alabama lawmakers passed a new map in July that maintained a single majority-black district and increased the percentage of black voters in another district, District 2, from about 30% to nearly 40%.

We are not aware of any other case where a state legislator faced a federal court order declaring its electoral plan unlawfully dilutes votes in minority districts and demanding a plan that provides an additional opportunity, responded with a plan that the state concedes and that does not provide for district, the judges wrote in the ruling rejecting the new map.

The group of black voters who filed one of the two lawsuits leading to the order compared Alabama’s opposition to the case to that of the segregationist governor. George Wallace, who unsuccessfully tried to defy desegregation court orders.

History repeats itself and the district court decision confirms that Alabama is once again on the losing side. We demand that Alabama again get out of the way and obey our laws. We demand our right to vote, the plaintiffs said in a statement.

Alabama is refusing to create a second majority black congressional district, in defiance of the Supreme Court

At a hearing last month, all three justices pointedly questioned the state’s attorney general about the state’s refusal to create a second majority-black district.

Alabama argued that the card complied with the Voting Rights Act and the Supreme Court’s decision in the case. The state argued that the judges did not require the creation of a second majority-black district if it would mean violating traditional redistribution principles, such as keeping communities of interest together.

District 2 is as close as you can get to a second majority-black district without violating the Supreme Court’s decision, Alabama Attorney General Edmund LaCour said during oral arguments.

Abha Khanna, an attorney representing a group of plaintiffs in the case, argued at the hearing that Alabama chose resistance over compliance.

Alabama has instead chosen to turn its nose up at this court, turn its nose up at the nation’s highest court, and turn its nose at its own black citizens, Khanna said.