In Jefferson County, Judge Madeline H. Haikala recently ruled that its current commission map violates the Fourteenth Amendment. Jefferson is the biggest county in Alabama. And with the current map, the majority of its Black voters have been crammed into just two districts out of the seven.

​“Because the 2021 plan violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection against racial gerrymandering, the Court permanently enjoins the Commission and its agents from using the 2021 plan in Jefferson County Commission elections,” Haikala wrote in her ruling.

In 2023, a lawsuit was filed accusing the Jefferson County Commission of illegally redistricting residents and limiting the influence of Black residents in the remaining districts. With the current ruling, the judge has given the county 30 days to develop a new map for reconsideration.

Black voters make up roughly 42% of Jefferson County’s population, as NewsOne notes. The proposed lines would preserve a lopsided representation of the state’s racial identity and limit the political power of Black voters.

“It’s a problem of not just those two districts that were maintained at super majority Black status without consideration of what the Voting Rights Act required, but also an explicit attempt to maintain the racial ratios of Black voters to white voters in every other district,” said NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorney Kathryn Sadasivan to NewsOne.

Race-based gerrymandering — the practice of diluting the voting power of Black residents through redistricting — is a problem that has made headlines more frequently, and civil rights advocates are alarmed. However, it’s a story as old as the practice of voting itself.

“Even as Black people moved into the suburbs, the district lines of one and two chased them out,” said Sadasivan.