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For all practical purposes, abortion will not be available in large swaths of the country. The decision, most of which was leaked in early May, means that abortion rights will be rolled back in nearly half of the states immediately, with more restrictions likely to follow. Writing for the court majority, Justice Samuel Alito said that the 1973 Roe ruling and repeated subsequent high court decisions reaffirming Roe "must be overruled" because they were "egregiously wrong," the arguments "exceptionally weak" and so "damaging" that they amounted to "an abuse of judicial authority." Wade on Friday, declaring that the constitutional right to abortion, upheld for nearly a half century, no longer exists. In a historic and far-reaching decision, the U.S. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri and Kevin McGill in New Orleans contributed to this report.Anti-abortion activists rally in front of the U.S. Cassidy in Atlanta Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas David A. “It’s a small price to pay to carve up my district in order to be able to have two majority minority districts,” she said.Īssociated Press writers Ayanna Alexander in Washington Christina A. Whatever the process for drawing the new lines, “They’re going to have to follow the ruling of the court,” she said, noting that a revamped congressional map would also mean her district is redrawn. Sewell, who is Black, fully expected the new districts to be in place in time for the 2024 elections. Terri Sewell, the lone Democrat in Alabama’s congressional delegation, said she expects the case will be sent back to the three lower court judges who unanimously agreed the lines drawn by the Legislature likely violated the federal law. He said the five Supreme Court justices in the majority must have looked at the map and the state’s population and decided “it looked ridiculous to those judges, as well.” House and state legislative districts likely violated the Voting Rights Act, but he had allowed the districts to be used in the 2022 elections because it was too close to the election to redraw them. A federal judge last year also ruled that some of Georgia’s U.S. While it was considering the Alabama case, the Supreme Court had placed a hold on a lower court ruling in Louisiana allowing creation of a second majority-Black district. Kareem Crayton, the Brennan Center’s senior director for voting and representation, called the court’s decision “a welcome surprise” and said challenges to the maps in Louisiana and Georgia were the most similar to the Alabama case. Similar maps have been drawn in other states, primary by Republican-controlled legislatures. Just one of its seven congressional districts is majority Black, in a state where more than one in four residents is Black. Alabama’s Black population is large enough and geographically compact enough to create a second district, the judges found. The court majority found that Alabama concentrated Black voters in one district, while spreading them out among the others to make it much more difficult to elect more than one candidate of their choice. How the decision will affect similar lawsuits against political maps drawn in other states is unclear, although voting rights groups say the ruling provides firm guidance for lower courts to follow. “It was a surprise that was good for my day,” he said. He was at his law office Thursday in Selma, scene of one of the most pivotal moments in the Civil Rights Movement, when news of the 5-4 ruling in favor of Alabama’s Black voters was announced. “I was afraid they were going to go ahead and wipe out section 2,” he said, referring to the part of the Voting Rights Act at stake in the Alabama case. He was not anticipating being happy with the outcome, given that previous rulings of the conservative-leaning court had essentially gutted some of its most important provisions. Hank Sanders, a former Alabama state lawmaker who has long been politically active in the state, knew there would be a decision since the court heard arguments in the case last fall. WASHINGTON (AP) - This week’s Supreme Court decision ordering Alabama to redraw its congressional districts was seen by many minority lawmakers and voting rights activists as a stunning victory with the potential to become a major stepping stone for undoing political maps that dilute the strength of communities of color.
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