Supreme Court hands win to opponents of Alabama redistricting plan

[applegrove]

Supreme Court hands win to opponents of Alabama redistricting plan

By Robert Barnes at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-rules-against-alabama-redistricting-plan/2015/03/25/9545576a-d2f5-11e4-a62f-ee745911a4ff_story.html

"SNIP.................


The Supreme Court sided with black challengers Wednesday and told a lower court to reconsider whether a redistricting plan drawn by Alabama’s Republican-led legislature packed minority voters into districts in order to dilute their influence.

The court voted 5 to 4 to send the plan back for further judicial review. Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote the opinion, and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy sided with the court’s liberals to make up the majority.

The challenge was brought by black officeholders and Democrats who argued that the state’s Republican leadership packed minority voters into districts that allowed the election of African American officials but reduced their influence elsewhere.

......

Breyer said a lower-court panel should have looked at individual districts rather than statewide in order to decide whether there was racial gerrymandering. And he said the legislators and the reviewing court did not use the proper test in deciding whether the redistricting was in line with the Voting Rights Act.



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[calimary]

1. Surprised! After the pass they gave Wisconsin

I expected this one would not go our way either.

[Gothmog]

2. This ruling should help the Texas Redistricting case