By John Kruzel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request by Alabama officials to halt a lower court’s ruling that rejected a Republican-crafted electoral map for diminishing the clout of Black voters, likely clearing the way for a new map to be drawn ahead of the 2024 congressional elections.
The court’s action leaves intact a Sept. 5 decision by a federal three-judge panel in Birmingham that the map approved by the state’s Republican-led legislature to set the boundaries of Alabama’s seven U.S. House of Representatives districts was unlawfully biased against Black voters and must be redrawn.
That map was devised after the Supreme Court in June blocked a previous version, also for weakening the voting power of Black Alabamians.
(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)
