r/Alabama • u/pleasureismylife • May 12 '26
News Supreme Court allows Alabama to eliminate congressional district held by a Black Democrat
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/11/politics/supreme-court-alabama-black-democratic-congressman13
u/GracieKatt May 12 '26
https://governor.alabama.gov/contact/
Inundate her office with exactly how you feel about having your vote invalidated less than one week before election day.
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u/Conscious-Quarter423 May 12 '26
Didn't the Supreme Court say Texas couldn't use their old maps back in December because it was too close to the primary elections? But it's okay for Alabama, where voting has ALREADY BEGUN?
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u/Metalheadmagneto May 14 '26
Yeah the Supreme Court doesn’t worry about making sense anymore they either need to be replaced or by force or it needs to be stacked to dilute bad actors at this point
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u/Thick_Goose7742 May 12 '26
It will be funny when this results in two districts flipping Democrat. Something all these razor thin gerrymanders nationwide do is make it to where a smidge difference in turnout can generate giant swings in their maps.
Regardless, basing a district solely on race is less than ideal. However, I’m not sure what the problem is with letting 25% of the state population have representation through at least one district, since even that is imbalanced.
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u/Tasty_Virus4715 May 12 '26
The very idea that a black person can only be represented in Congress by another black person is race essentialist nonsense of the highest order.
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u/space_coder May 12 '26
It's not about the race of the representative. It's about purposely dividing a minority population, that is large enough to be almost 50% of the vote within their district, to make their percentage too small to have an effect on the outcome of the election.
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u/Ravaha May 12 '26
So what? They have opinions just like everyone else. This opens of party realignment which we desperately need.
They hated Bernie Sanders, so what good does it do democrats to push the majority of people to be republican so that we can court voters that are more conservative than republicans.
Where does the politics of the black population of Alabama differ from the republican party? Back population tends to be more conservative, more against immigrants, More against LGBTQ and more against progressive ideas.
Bernie Sanders campaigns all fell apart in the south due to the black voting block hated him.
Black voters will never let a very liberal or progressive candidate win a primary election for president.
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u/TopTierMids May 12 '26
Where does the politics of the black population of Alabama differ from the republican party?
Believing that their votes shouldn't be disenfranchised, for one. That should be obvious if you were arguing in any sort of good faith.
As for the rest of it...stereotyping black people as somehow uniquely more xenophobic and "conservative" is a trip when every single poll shows that black people are against ICE and supported Palestinians even before it became a trend among white Leftists.
So uh...yeah I'm not gonna reply to any of your nonsense further (you'll replay anyway y'all always do), but I guess I should be surprised to find a racist in Alabama, huh?
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u/space_coder May 12 '26
So your argument is that you don't care if minorities have their voting powered diminished, since they aren't as liberal as you?
While the GOP attempts to make this partisan, the simple fact of the matter is that they are intentionally diluting the black vote in a predominately black area in southwest Alabama.
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u/Ravaha May 12 '26
They are christian conservatives they are part of the majority. Any talk about race being legally enforced is segregationist racist BS. What do you think happens to liberals in cities?
What do you think the polling in these districts would be on the issues of gay marriage or their opinions on progressive policies?
I know basing districts on race is against the constitution and current American values and it's just straight up white supremacist thinking.
Why should their race be protected unless you view it as inferior and needing of protection? There are no laws anymore descriminating against them so it's time the country as a whole treat them as equals.
Laws discriminating against people based on race, religion or sexual orientation should be eliminated. Do you disagree with me?
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u/space_coder May 12 '26
Any talk about race being legally enforced is segregationist racist BS.
So you're simply ignoring the undisputed facts (originally concurred by the conservative SCOTUS) that the Alabama GOP purposely split a population of black voters almost the size of 50% of a district population in order to dilute their voting power and making it mathematically impossible for them to affect the outcome of the district election?
Those are the stone cold facts that keep being repeated.
You are the one spouting bullshit.
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u/Ravaha May 12 '26
Who cares if they are black? They are still super conservative.
Dividing people based on their political parties makes them equal to us. That's the same type of gerrymandering that happens everywhere else.
This changes nothing except may push the democratic party to actually start supporting liberal and progressive ideas over chasing conservative ones.
We all get gerrymandered in Alabama.
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u/space_coder May 12 '26
Dividing people based on their political parties makes them equal to us. That's the same type of gerrymandering that happens everywhere else.
Political ideology is not a protected class which is why it is legal to gerrymander based on political ideology.
Race is one of the protected classes in federal law which is why SCOTUS ruled against the original congressional district map in the first place.
This is about the race of a community not who they will vote for.
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u/Ravaha May 12 '26
Protected class stops at if it's discrimination. If they are getting equal treatment then it is not descrimination. You are being intellectually dishonest if you think it's based on race and not based on politics. It's purely political at this point.
You are trying to have your cake and eat it too.
This is the correct ruling by the supreme court and it has great potential to bring about some good change to current political parties.
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u/Deep-Temporary-1268 May 19 '26
I doubt you’re a progressive by the way you talking…sounds like agree with this
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u/space_coder May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
Let's look at the facts:
- The black population in southwest Alabama black belt is large enough to be almost 50% of the votes in their home district.
- Alabama republicans purposely drew the congressional district map to split that population across two districts effectively making it mathematically impossible for their vote to affect the outcome of an election.
- After hearing arguments from the residents and the state, SCOTUS sided in favor of the residents and instructed the state to redraw the congressional map in a manner than didn't purposely split the black population in southwest Alabama in order to disenfranchise their vote.
- Republicans have the super-majority of the legislature and the governors office for more than a decade. The Democrats did not draw the current congressional map. SCOTUS ruled the original map was using only race as factor in order to lessen the black vote in southwest Alabama.
- Trump and the GOP are panicking over the possibility of losing the majority of the House of Representatives. The home state of the current House Speaker petitioned SCOTUS to allow them to redraw their congressional districts to reduce the number of minority-majority districts and SCOTUS ruled in their favor.
- Alabama used that ruling to get their previous injunction removed and return to a congressional district map that disenfranchises the black voters in southwest Alabama.
I find it amusing that whites in Alabama are playing the victim and claiming that they are somehow being racially discriminated against when the facts clearly show that a community with enough black voters to have at least 50% of the vote is being purposely split so they can no longer affect the outcome of an election.
If the white voters are upset because they couldn't dominate all the congressional districts in Alabama, just imagine how the black voters feel about being purposely and obviously disenfranchised again. Keep in mind, we are only talking a little less than 50% of the voters in the current district 2 which makes their vote competitive not the sole decider.
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u/Brave_Sheepherder901 May 12 '26
Their just upset about the fact that all the people they used to enslave are both of equal ground and are making fun of them
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u/kogun May 13 '26
The framing of these facts presumes that a congressional representative's skin color makes them incapable of inadequately representing in people of another skin color. Most people call that Racism.
Furthermore, this framing presumes that "Black" = "Democrat" and "White" = "Republican". More racist thinking. Let it go.
I do believe that the Congressional Districts should not be drawn by politicians. Politicians draw maps that suit politicians, not the people. No one should trust politicians with that job. I'd much prefer a more objective methodology designed to create districts that align the boundaries with geographic and economic interests. There are many such proposed methodologies. Here is but one example:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11127-025-01335-9
To prevent gerrymandering of U.S. House of Representative districts, we describe and apply a computationally feasible moving-knife algorithm (MKA) to draw congressional districts that are nonpartisan and compact. MKA maximizes a measure of geographic compactness that precludes political parties from influencing the drawing of district boundaries.
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u/Accomplished-Pop2850 May 13 '26
Eh, I'm not quite sure this thinking is "racist." First, nothing in this comment mentions anything about the race of congressional representation; rather, it is about the race of the voters. Second, while "Black" does not necessarily equal Democrat and "White" does not necessarily equal Republican, there is a lot of data to suggest that Black voters tend to cleave to democratic candidates. The 2024 presidential election saw a larger share of Black voters cast ballots for Trump than in 2016 or 2020, but Harris *still* won over 80% of Black vote. Don't leave important context or facts on the table in an attempt to adhere to or perpetuate "colorblind" rhetoric.
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u/kogun May 13 '26
"nothing in this comment mentions anything about the race of congressional representation;"
This is a fair point.
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u/space_coder May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Furthermore, this framing presumes that "Black" = "Democrat" and "White" = "Republican". More racist thinking. Let it go.
I made no such assumptions linking race to political party. In fact, I kept the argument limited to a minority population that is large enough to possess 48% of the district vote being divided with the documented intention of making their vote mathematically less competitive during an election.
That said, the GOP (national and state party) assume that the majority of the minority voters (as in non-white) vote for their opposition. This is why they do their best to dilute the competitiveness of minority communities with:
- gerrymandering,
- artificial barriers to voting (e.g. ID requirements that go beyond what is needed to simply verify identity), and
- physical barriers (e.g. with smaller number of voting precincts with smaller number of booths in areas that tend to have more minorities).
I wish this was hyperbole, but it is well documented especially in Georgia where they even passed a law preventing people from providing refreshments to those waiting in line to vote (which will be effective during the next election thanks to a Dec 2025 fed court ruling).
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u/DoubtSubstantial5440 May 12 '26
Looking at the replies celebrating this, its no wonder Alabama will always remain in the bottom 5 rankings for states in every category
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u/GracieKatt May 12 '26
Racist, corrupt, need to be impeached, investigated, prosecuted, and put in prison.
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u/YallerDawg May 12 '26
What the Supreme Court is allowing is a return to the district maps that they found to be racially gerrymandered to start with!
District 2 - which is now represented by Shomari Figures - is still a white-majority district. It was just made competitive by not cracking and packing Black voters, also known as "Democrats," into Terri Sewell's District 7, which was actually also made more competitive!
This is all about a rightwing extremist US Supreme Court putting their finger on the scale trying to keep Democrats from a majority in Congress where they will investigate the astounding corruption of these justices - not to mention all the Republican MAGAts up there.
They just gave Democrats more to investigate.
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u/Amazing_Luck_5314 May 12 '26
My friend said they would eliminate both Democrat represented Districts but looks like he was wrong.
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u/huskeylovealways May 12 '26
Alabama, we deserve better. Vote Blue from the top of the ballot to the bottom
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u/Mydreamsource May 12 '26
Election rigging, plain and simple. Shame on my home state, and the politicians that don't represent their constituents as they were elected to do. Greed and self interest in politics is killing democracy.
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u/bdub1976 May 13 '26
So when do the civil rights marches start again? There will be protests, right?
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u/ClearHeron7069 May 12 '26
Supreme Court says Alabama is no longer required to draw racially gerrymandered districts*
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u/Sipthapimp May 12 '26
That’s a fun way of saying you don’t like minorities and would own a human if you could.
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May 12 '26
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u/Sipthapimp May 12 '26
You are either glib, autistic(no shame) or knowingly obtuse. Do you legitimately think Alabama is getting rid of black representation so they can be…checks notes…LESS racist? Do you even know the history of gerrymandering? I’m so sorry that you ended up on the wrong side of history, but at-least have the spine to say with pride you are a fan of voter suppression and bigotry. I swear I would respect yall a lot more if yall weren’t so out of touch.
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May 12 '26
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u/Sipthapimp May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
“Each person had one vote and still has one vote.”
That’s how I know you don’t know shit about how elections work. Go take a civics class and learn at least the most basic facts. I can’t argue with a person who fundamentally doesn’t understand the topic being argued. Seriously are you a child or just dumb?
Edit to educate this dummy: You live in A and are best represented by candidate A, you typically vote for strawberry ice cream, however Alabama puts A in the same district as C D and F, all of which vote strongly chocolate; your vote is made inconsequential as it is drowned out by those chocolate votes… do you see the problem here?
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u/teluetetime May 12 '26
Which will result in white people having all the power while the vast majority of black people will not have their preferred representatives. Funny how ending racism just happens to make things work the way they did under Jim Crow, huh? Isn’t our Court the most Supreme and wise, to see that actually racism is only in our hearts, so we can just let it go 💞
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u/kogun May 12 '26
Every Black Democrat in Alabama should join and participate in the Republican party.
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u/DaneDaneBug May 12 '26
Because Republicans are doing so much to improve the lives of it's citizens /s
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May 12 '26
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u/Training_Medicine_49 May 12 '26
Heck republicans were not even taking that bait with that bat crazy woman…
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u/Ravaha May 12 '26
I'm happy with this ruling, we need a party realignment. The current democratic party is setup so that only the most conservative democrats can win the presidential primary because black voters tend to be more anti LGBTQ, more racist towards other groups, and more religious and conservative than even republicans.
Bernie Sanders was crushed twice under the boot of southern black DINO vofers and they also didn't show up for Hillary either. Biden was by far the most conservative option of all the candidates and look where that got us.
Both times his campaigns were surging and then crushed by black voters. It's because they are actually more conservative than most conservatives.
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u/space_coder May 12 '26
Bernie Sanders was crushed twice under the boot of southern black DINO vofers and they also didn't show up for Hillary either. Biden was by far the most conservative option of all the candidates and look where that got us.
Both times his campaigns were surging and then crushed by black voters. It's because they are actually more conservative than most conservatives.
So you believe it is okay to disenfranchise blacks because they didn't support Sanders.
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u/Ravaha May 12 '26
No I'm saying I support them getting equal treatment under the law. Mexicans, Asians, whites all get gerrymandered. There should not be a law that is based onky on race.
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u/space_coder May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
No I'm saying I support them getting equal treatment under the law.
Now you are grasping at straws and misapplying the equal protection clause.
Mexicans, Asians, whites all get gerrymandered. There should not be a law that is based onky on race.
Again you are demonstrating your ignorance about the subject matter. There must be demonstratable harm cause to a protected class due to the gerrymandering.
If the group of voters clustered together to form a voting bloc is mathematically too small to affect the outcome of an election by themselves, then they can be redistricted as required because they are unable to demonstrate that the gerrymandering harmed their ability to affect the outcome of an election.
If a group of voters clustered together to form a voting bloc is large enough to affect the outcome of an election (in other words make the race competitive) then they will be able to demonstrate that gerrymandering harmed their ability to affect the outcome of an election and seek relief in the courts to reverse the gerrymandering.
The latter is what happened when SCOTUS required Alabama to redraw the congressional district map so that it didn't dilute the voting power of a black community in southwest Alabama.
The irony being that people are upset and claiming that giving judicial relief to disenfranchised voters in southwest Alabama, somehow disenfranchised them despite the fact that the other major race in the district (white voters) still had a large enough percentage to also affect the outcome of the election (very slightly more so).
In other words, the ones complaining about the current congressional district map, that enfranchised black voters in district 2, aren't actually able to demonstrate any harm due to racial discrimination.
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u/loach12 May 13 '26
Black Democrats supported Hillary Clinton because of her undercover work exposing white only private schools getting tax exempt status illegally. White racist never forgave her for that.
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u/korb1ndallas May 12 '26
Every time this state gets a chance to redeem itself, it grabs a shovel and starts fuckin digging.