The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on Tuesday in a case that could put another nail in the coffin of the landmark Voting Rights Act, first passed in 1965 and aimed at eliminating race discrimination against minority voters. At issue is Alabama’s congressional redistricting plan adopted by the Republican state legislature after the 2020 census. More than a quarter of the state’s population is African American, but in only 1 of 7 districts do minority voters have a realistic chance of electing the candidate of their choice. Black voters are either concentrated in that district so they are a supermajority there or spread out across the remaining six districts so that their voting power is diluted. It’s a practice known as packing and cracking.
