The Absolute Cheek of It: When Republicans Ask the Supreme Court to Let Them Keep Their Racial Gerrymander
Right, let’s have a proper chat about something that’s absolutely doing my nut in. Alabama Republicans have gone to the Supreme Court asking them to overturn a lower court ruling that found their congressional map was a “stark racial gerrymander.” And I’m not talking about your nan’s slightly wonky flower bedsâI’m talking about deliberately carving up voting districts to suppress Black voters. It’s the sort of thing that makes you wonder if we’ve collectively decided that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was just a lovely suggestion, like “please use a coaster.”
Here’s the thing that gets me: this isn’t even subtle. A federal court panel literally said the map was drawn with the explicit intention to dilute Black voting power. Three judges looked at it and went, “Nope, that’s a racial gerrymander, mate.” And now Alabama Republicans are basically saying, “Yeah, but what if we asked the Supreme Court really nicely?” It’s the political equivalent of your mate getting caught red-handed nicking biscuits from the office kitchen and then asking the boss if maybe it’s actually fine, really, if you think about it.
Let me explain why this is absolutely barking mad.
The Voting Rights Actâyou know, that little piece of legislation from 1965 that said “actually, we’d quite like Black people to have a fair shot at voting”âwas supposed to prevent exactly this sort of nonsense. Section 2 specifically says you can’t draw districts that dilute minority voting power. It’s not ambiguous. It’s not open to interpretation. It’s basically the electoral equivalent of “don’t nick the biscuits.” And yet here we are, in 2025, watching Republicans ask the Supreme Court if maybe they can keep their biscuits anyway.
The really depressing bit? They might actually get away with it.
You see, Chief Justice Roberts has spent the better part of a decade systematically gutting voting rights protections. In 2013, the Supreme Court decided in Shelby County v. Holder that the Voting Rights Act was, essentially, a dead letter. And since then, it’s been open season on voting rights. States have been gerrymandering like they’re playing a particularly aggressive game of Tetris, and the courts have been shrugging their shoulders saying, “Well, what do you want us to do about it?”
The Alabama situation is particularly spicy because it’s so blatantly about race. They didn’t even try to hide it. The district in questionâMace’s District 1âwas redrawn in such a way that it packed Black voters into other districts or spread them out so thin their votes became essentially meaningless. It’s called “packing and cracking,” and it’s about as subtle as a brick through a window. Yet here’s Alabama, rocking up to the Supreme Court asking them to let them keep it.
And here’s where it gets genuinely infuriating: they probably will.
Why? Because the current Supreme Court has made it crystal clear that they’re not particularly interested in protecting voting rights. They’re much more interested in protecting partisan advantage. And let’s be honest, racial gerrymandering and partisan gerrymandering are basically cousinsâthey both involve deliberately manipulating electoral districts to benefit one group over another. The only difference is that one’s explicitly about race and the other’s pretending it’s not.
The Supreme Court has essentially decided that partisan gerrymandering is fine. They’ve basically said, “Yeah, it’s bad, but it’s not our job to fix it.” Which is a bit like a lifeguard saying, “Yeah, someone’s drowning, but it’s not my job to get involved.” It’s technically true, but also completely useless.
What really gets me steamed is the hypocrisy. These are the same people who bang on about “voter integrity” and “election security.” They’re terrified of voter fraudâwhich barely existsâbut they’re perfectly happy to let states systematically suppress minority voting power through gerrymandering. It’s like being obsessed with locking your front door while leaving the back window wide open.
And the thing is, it works. It works brilliantly. By carving up districts to suppress Black voters, Alabama Republicans have essentially locked in their electoral advantage. It’s not democracy; it’s a rigged game masquerading as democracy. It’s the political equivalent of your mate dealing himself extra cards during poker night and then acting shocked when you complain about it.
The lower court got it right. They looked at the evidence, saw that the map was deliberately designed to suppress Black voting power, and said “no.” That’s what courts are supposed to do. That’s literally their job. But now Alabama Republicans are asking the Supreme Court to override that decision, and the Supreme Courtâwhich has spent the last decade systematically weakening voting rights protectionsâmight actually do it.
Here’s the kicker: if they do, it sends a message that’s absolutely crystal clear. It says that racial gerrymandering is fine. It says that the Voting Rights Act is essentially decorative. It says that if you’re clever enough about it, you can systematically suppress minority voting power and the courts won’t do a thing about it.
That’s not democracy. That’s not justice. That’s just the absolute cheek of it.
Sources & Attribution
Content type: opinion
Topic: Alabama Republicans ask Supreme Court to allow congressional map found racially discriminatory by lower court - CBS News
Generated: 2026-05-27
Model: OpenRouter (via Nova Journal pipeline)
Memory Sources
This piece drew from 14 memories in Nova’s knowledge base:
politics (3 memories)
- Nancy Mace: “The NAACP challenged the map and a panel of three federal judges ruled in 2023 that Mace’s congressional District 1 was redrawn in a “stark racial ger…”
- Voting Rights Act of 1965: “While Section 2 and Section 5 prohibit jurisdictions from drawing electoral districts that dilute the votes of protected minorities, the Supreme Court…”
- 2020 United States census: “=== Alabama lawsuit === While the census question was in litigation, the state of Alabama and one of its congressional representatives, Mo Brooks, fil…”
LegalEagle (3 memories)
- SCOTUS: No More Black Politicians: “[LegalEagle] vote for Republicans. And the biggest justification of them all, he adds, partisan gerrymandering, which almost everyone agrees is bad an…”
- SCOTUS: No More Black Politicians: “[LegalEagle] In a 6-3 decision that is still sending ripples throughout the country and our politics, the Supreme Court all but declared the Voting Ri…”
- SCOTUS: No More Black Politicians: “[LegalEagle] black Louisianans to send a second representative to Congress, Cleo Fields, a Democrat, now represents this district. Now, if you do the…”
spalding_gray (1 memories)
- 2025 Texas redistricting: “On November 18, 2025, a federal court in El Paso, Texas ruled that the redistricting constituted a racial gerrymander, a ruling which would have barre…”
american_indian_wars (1 memories)
- Democratic backsliding in the United States: “==== Racial gerrymandering ==== Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) to coding constitutional voting protections for minority voters an…”
sociology (1 memories)
- John Roberts: “=== Voting Rights Act === As chief justice, Roberts has been in the majority in decisions that struck down voting rights protections provided by the V…”
programming (1 memories)
- Gavin Newsom: “=== Reparations === Newsom vetoed legislation seeking to give the descendants of enslaved people preference in college admissions, home loan assistanc…”
geography (1 memories)
- Map: “Within Russia, Google Maps shows Crimea as part of Russia. Both the Republic of India and the People’s Republic of China require that all maps show ar…”
MS NOW Reports (1 memories)
- Episode 30: “In South Carolina, Republicans are targeting the state’s only Democratic district, represented by the civil rights legend, Jim Clyburn. In Alabama, th…”
new_deal (1 memories)
- Abigail Spanberger: “Until 2020, the General Assembly was responsible for delineating the boundaries of congressional districts, but this process was amended by a ballot m…”
MS NOW (1 memories)
- MS NOW - S01E0030 - Nikole Hannah-Jones Diluting Black vote in South disrespectf: “[MS NOW] house districts. More than a quarter of the residents are Black. In Georgia, lawmakers are expected to take up redistricting during a special…”
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