Southern States Redraw Congressional Maps Following Supreme Court Voting Rights Ruling

Several southern states are redrawing congressional maps after the US supreme court curtailed the use of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The revisions are designed to alter districts that have elected Black Democrats. Tennessee Republicans have enacted a new map that divides the majority-Black city of Memphis into three congressional districts.

The change eliminates the state's only district currently represented by a Democrat. Louisiana is preparing to implement a new map that would remove one of the two districts held by Black Democrats in Congress. The state canceled its primary elections after more than 42,000 ballots had been cast.

"Those ballots are discarded and those voters will vote again in November," Landry said during an interview on 60 Minutes. " Alabama has received supreme court approval to use a map that a lower court previously ruled was drawn to discriminate against Black voters.

The state will employ that map for the current election cycle. Republican lawmakers had earlier declined to advance such a plan.

Georgia and Mississippi have decided against redrawing maps before the 2026 midterm elections but are expected to consider changes ahead of the 2028 elections. Texas, Missouri, Florida and North Carolina, which previously adjusted maps to add Republican-leaning districts, could redraw again before 2028.

The Congressional Black Caucus, which currently has 58 members, is preparing for possible losses in southern states. Civil rights groups have filed legal challenges. The American Civil Liberties Union sued Tennessee over its new map this week, arguing it violates the Constitution.

In Alabama, groups asked a federal court to block use of the 2023 map. A conservative legal organization cited the supreme court decision to challenge the Illinois voting rights act, testing whether the ruling affects state-level protections.

The supreme court's prior rulings emphasized that federal courts should avoid changing election rules close to voting. In December the court blocked a lower court order on Texas's map, citing proximity to primary elections. In 2022 it made a similar ruling for Alabama.

The court has faced criticism for how its approach applies after the section 2 decision. Michael Li of the Brennan Center for Justice described the situation as a significant change for Black representation in the South. Stuart Naifeh, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the effect reaches beyond 2010 levels to conditions last seen in 1975.