Thursday’s ruling upholds a decision by a three-judge panel that threw out Alabama’s new congressional map, which
included only one congressional district with a majority of Black voters even though African Americans make up more than a quarter of the state’s population.
It was a surprise from a court whose conservative majority had signaled it was suspicious of the
Voting Rights Act that Alabama was challenging, which the state said requires legislatures to prioritize race over traditional redistricting techniques.
Thursday’s opinion in effect preserves the status quo in the court’s interpretation of voting rights protections, and Roberts acknowledged concerns that those rulings “may impermissibly elevate race in the allocation of political power within the States."
“Our opinion today does not diminish or disregard these concerns,” he wrote. “It simply holds that a faithful application of our precedents and a fair reading of the record before us do not bear them out here.”
