Elie Honig: Supreme Court Allow Alabama to Go from Two Majority Black Dem. Leaning Districts Down to One

EXCERPT:

HONIG: "Well, Kaitlan, so, heading into tonight, Alabama had a map where of the seven congressional districts in Alabama, two of those had been drawn to be majority black Democrat-leaning districts. However, now, as a result of this decision, that‘s going to go down to one. And this is all based off of the Louisiana Supreme Court opinion that came down in late April. In that opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court said the states can essentially draw congressional lines for whatever political reasons they want. They cannot, however, consider race either way in drawing those lines. So the state of Alabama took that opinion and said, 'Okay, we now want to un-draw one of those majority black districts and go from two down to one.' And in tonight‘s opinion, the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 split, the six conservatives in the majority, the three liberals in the dissent said, 'It‘s okay, Alabama, you can go ahead and do that.' So the net-net out of the end of this is that Alabama will go from two majority black Democratic-leaning districts down to one. And I should note, Kaitlan, the dissent here is quite impassioned. It comes from the three liberal justices, Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson. At one point, they called the court‘s action 'unconscionable.' They say that it tramples on the rights of black Alabamians to be represented with their votes. But this is the new reality in the court. Ever since that Louisiana case came down, there have been — this is the next in a long line of domino effects. And one seat will probably swing as a result of this."