About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 1 (February 22, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govefib0001 and id is 1 raw text is: S Congressional ______ AResearch Service Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Voting Rights Act Challenge to Congressional Redistricting Map and Stays Lower Court Ruling: Implications for Congress February 22, 2022 The Supreme Court has agreed to consider a significant case challenging an Alabama congressional redistricting map under the Voting Rights Act (VRA). On February 7, in the consolidated case Merrill v. Milligan, the Court stayed lower court preliminary injunctions that would have required, among other things, Alabama to revise its congressional redistricting map to create a second majority-Black district. As the Court is not expected to hear oral argument in this case until the October 2022 term, the 2022 congressional elections in Alabama will likely occur under the existing map. This Legal Sidebar discusses Section 2 of the VRA in the context of redistricting; the lower court rulings, and the Supreme Court stay; and concludes with an analysis of possible implications of this case for Congress. Section 2 of the VRA Congressional district boundaries in every state are required to comply with Section 2 of the VRA, codified at 52 U.S.C. § 10301. Section 2 authorizes the federal government and private citizens to challenge discriminatory voting practices or procedures, including the diminishing or weakening of minority voting power, known as minority vote dilution. Section 2 prohibits any voting qualification or practice applied or imposed by any state or political subdivision (e.g., a city or county) that results in the denial or abridgement of the right to vote based on race, color, or membership in a language minority. This prohibition includes congressional redistricting maps. Section 2 further provides that a violation is established if, based on the totality of circumstances, electoral processes are not equally open to participation by members of a racial or language minority group in that the group's members have less opportunity than other members of the electorate to elect representatives of their choice. In the landmark 1986 decision Thornburg v. Gingles, the Supreme Court established a three-pronged test for proving vote dilution under Section 2 of the VRA. Under this test, (1) the minority group must be able to demonstrate that it is sufficiently large and geographically compact to constitute a majority in a single- Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10699 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most