Alabama House approves new congressional map after SCOTUS order

Alabama lawmakers on Wednesday approved a new congressional map after the Supreme Court ordered them to redraw it over concerns it underrepresented black residents.

The new map increases black representation in the Second Congressional District from roughly 30% to 42.5%, The Hill reported, though it does not create the second black majority district that a lower court previously ordered. The Supreme Court ruling upheld that decision.

Members of the state House voted 74-27 to approve the plan, while the Senate is still mulling its own.

The plan before the upper chamber also increases black representation in the second district, albeit by a smaller margin than does the House plan.

Alabama Democrats have condemned both as falling well shy of the court order. 

National Redistricting Foundation Executive Director Marina Jenkins, in a statement The Hill obtained, that "Alabama Republicans are intentionally drawing political retention maps at the expense of Black Alabamians—in defiance of the Supreme Court and the Alabama district court."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.