Voting Rights Act of 1965

Alabama on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to allow it to use a congressional map favoring Republicans in this year's elections, despite a lower court's ruling that the redistricting plan intentionally discriminates against Black people.

A three judge panel is ruling against the state of Alabama and its plans to erase a African American U.S. House seat. There’s also reportedly separate deadline associated with this case starting Tuesday. The three judges in the Northern District of Alabama, Southern Division, in Birmingham, says the state cannot use voting maps that delete the African American and Democratic District two.

Organizers of Saturday’s voting rights protests in Montgomery and Selma say that was just the beginning. Demonstrators started at the Edmund Pettus Bridge where marchers were attacked in 1965. The day ended at Alabama’s Capitol City to oppose the redrawing of voting maps.

Parts of the state may be a bit busier tomorrow. Voting rights activists are planning protests following special sessions in Alabama and other states. Demonstrators plan to speak out over efforts to erase African American U.S. House seats including Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee.

Alabama’s special session on erasing African American representation in Congress is over. All side are now waiting to see what the U.S. Supreme Court does. Alabama’s Attorney General is appealing to the justices to overturn an injunction that’s keeping the state from rewriting the U.S. House seat in District two.

Alabama has asked federal judges to lift a court order requiring the state to have a second district where Black voters are the majority or close to it. Lawmakers are looking to take part in a national redistricting battle. and could vote today plan to alter state's congressional primaries if the courts allow Republican state officials to switch to more advantageous U.S. House maps ahead of the November midterm elections.

The Alabama Senate is poised to vote on its own plan to erase at least one Democratic U.S. House seat held by an African American lawmaker. The Alabama Public Radio news team produced a national award-winning investigation into the creation of District 2, at the order of the U.S. Supreme Court. That includes Lynn Oldshue's 2024 story on a 1960 SCOTUS case that laid the foundation for black voting rights.

Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are poised to take up a plan to carve up a majority-Black congressional district, reshaping it to the GOP's advantage as part of President Donald Trump's strategy to try to hold on to a slim House majority in the November midterm elections. The Alabama House passed legislation authorizing special congressional primaries as Republicans eye the possibility of getting a different congressional map in place for the November elections

The Alabama House may debate legislation that would allow the state to hold a special congressional primary, if the Supreme Court clears the way for the state to change its U.S. House districts. The current primary vote is currently set for later this month. Actions in the Alabama House and Senate are drawing an unusual rebuke from the, otherwise non-partisan, State League of Women Voters.

Thousands of marchers from around the nation are gathered in Selma, Alabama for this weekend's 61st annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee. This year's celebration will pay special tribute to the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who passed away last month at the age of 84.