For years, Alabama, where a quarter of the population is Black, had defied federal court orders, including one reaffirmed by the Supreme Court itself in 2023, to create a second majority- or plurality-Black congressional district. Alabama's reasoning for not doing so was simple: Its Republican legislators didn't want to, and they didn't believe that the Roberts Court would make them. 'The Supreme Court ruling was 5'4,' State House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said about the 2023 decision. 'So there's just one judge that needed to see something different.' The state was making a gamble that the Roberts Court was more partisan than sincere. And it paid off: On Tuesday, the Court allowed Alabama to proceed with a map that diminishes Black voting power to the advantage of Republicans. For all the Court's pretenses'all of its insistence on the rule of law, precedent, and good faith'many critics and supporters of the Roberts Court see the institution as an appendage of the Republican...
learn more
