U.S. Representative Terri Sewell

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 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.

The Alabama NAACP and the state’s League of Women Voters held a rally and issued statements against this week’s special session to possibly erase two Congressional seats, held by African American Democrats. This move follows last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a Louisiana case, where the Justices ruled that race should no longer be a factor in drawing voting maps. The NAACP held a protest in Montgomery called "Pull Up The People's House."The League of Women Voters is strongly opposing the Alabama special session, which was called nineteen days before voters head to the polls for this year’s primary elections. The Alabama Public Radio news team produced a national award winning series and documentary on the creation of the new District 2 seat.

Republican governors in Alabama and Tennessee have summoned lawmakers into special sessions this week seeking new congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Governor Kay Ivey reversed her position following the U.S. Supreme Court decision that race should not be a factor in drawing voter maps.

Alabama lawmakers gather in special session this week to possibly redraw the state's two minority-majority U.S House seats. Both are currently represented by African American Democrats. The National Association of Black Journalists, the Public Media Journalists Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists honored the APR news team for its eight month investigation into the creation of the new District 2 seat, as ordered in 2023 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Here's part one of that series from the APR archives...

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday faced federal lawmakers for the first time since September as he sought to defend a more than 12% proposed cut to his department's budget and dodge arrows from angry Democrats along the way. One fight erupted between Kennedy and Alabama Democratic Representative Terri Sewell over comments he made in 2024 about Black children.

As Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife reportedly head to the U.S. to face charges, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are lining up over whether the military action and the arrests of the Maduros are legal. That includes here in Alabama.

Federal judges on Tuesday sharply questioned lawyers on a request to make Alabama subject again to the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act after courts ruled the state intentionally diluted the voting strength of Black residents.

Senate Democrats reintroduced a bill Tuesday to restore and expand protections enshrined in the Voting Rights act of 1965, their latest long-shot attempt to revive the landmark law just days before its 60th anniversary and at a time of renewed debate over the future administration of American elections. The bill is named for the late John Lewis, who was injured during the 1965 attack on voting rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.