Republicans target the Voting Rights Act in redistricting fights geared toward the Supreme Court
CNN
A contentious decision from the US Supreme Court in a Voting Rights Act case from Alabama this week previewed what could be a momentous legal battle over the 1965 law, which over the past several years has been repeatedly whittled down by the conservative justices.
After lower courts ordered Alabama to redraw a congressional map that they found diluted the strength of Black voters, the state turned to the Supreme Court with aggressive arguments about the reach of the historic law. Alabama secured a 5-4 ruling on Monday night that will reinstate the disputed map for this year's election.
The assertions by Alabama about the role race should play in redistricting are just one of several claims being made by states defending their maps in court that would scale back the scope of the Voting Rights Act -- as Republican-controlled states move to adopt new voting restrictions in key battlegrounds. Some of the GOP states' arguments appear to go beyond even what a 6-3 conservative court would be willing to sanction.
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