Justice Clarence Thomas has been slammed for a nearly 50-page dissent he composed to the Supreme Court’s surprise ruling on a congressional redistricting case in Alabama that will safeguard a part of the Voting Rights Act.
The 5-4 ruling from the conservative-majority court will force Alabama lawmakers to draw lines for a new congressional district that is majority Black. That district will be the second majority-Black congressional sector in the state.
In the case at the center of the decision, Allen v. Milligan, the plaintiffs argued that Alabama lawmakers drew a redistricting map in 2021 that unfairly distributed and disenfranchised minority voters. Alabama civil rights groups and Black voters filed two lawsuits seeking the formation of a new minority district, which was granted in the high court’s new ruling. Justices decreed that the Alabama electoral map violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which bars election practices that discriminate on the basis of race.
Conservative Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh joined the court’s liberals in the opinion. The court’s other conservatives, including Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett were the dissenting votes.
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Thomas, joined in part by those three other justices, released a lengthy opinion that the court misinterprets Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. He said the law doesn’t apply to redistricting cases and that the majority ruling closely considered race in the drawing of district lines.
Thomas wrote the 1965 Voting Rights Act doesn’t require Alabama to “intentionally redraw its longstanding congressional districts so that black voters can control a number of seats roughly…
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