Bad news for the Alabama Democratic Conference and Alabama Legislative Black Caucus: The new boundaries, drawn in 2011 by a Republican-majority Legislature, were previously pre-cleared by the Justice Department at the request of the state’s Attorney General. “In the majority decision, U.S. Circuit Judge Bill Pryor rejected the claim about diluting black voter strength and wrote that ‘the overwhelming evidence in the record suggests that black voters will have an equal opportunity to participate in the political process the same as everyone else.’ He was joined by U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins.”
“A special panel of three federal judges has ruled that Alabama’s legislative district boundaries do not run afoul of the Voting Rights Act.”