Civil rights groups say Alabama minority districts are too minority

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Civil rights groups say Alabama lawmakers went too far when they created heavily black state legislative districts.

The Supreme Court was to hear oral arguments Wednesday on whether the Alabama map drawn up after the 2010 Census is the result of racial or political gerrymandering. The first is barred by earlier court rulings, while the second is allowed.

The new map gave Republicans even bigger majorities in both houses of the state legislature in last week's election with the winners mostly white Republicans and black Democrats.

The Black Legislative Conference and the Alabama Democratic Conference sued, arguing that black voters were deliberately removed from districts that had elected white Democrats. A federal appeals panel upheld the map 2-1.

Alabama officials have used the federal Voting Rights Act to defend the map, citing the Justice Department's "preclearance" when it was introduced. The Supreme Court struck down preclearance last year, a decision applauded in Alabama.

The Justice Department, in a friend of the court brief, argues the justices should return the case to a lower court to decide whether each district involves racial gerrymandering. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights urge the court to throw out the map entirely.

Republican leaders State Senate President Pro Tempore Del Marsh and House Speaker Mike Hubbard defend the map. In their brief, they called the legal case a "political dispute masquerading as a legal controversy."

The case has implications beyond Alabama. Last week, Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., lost his seat, leaving five states in the deep South with no white Democrats in the House.

In Texas, redistricting after the 2000 Census shifted the state's congressional delegation from narrowly Democratic to heavily Republican. Texas now sends only two white Democrats to Congress.