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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

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