By Andrew Chung and Nate Raymond in Reuters; story in National Post:

The U.S. Supreme Court heard spirited arguments on Tuesday in a major legal battle that threatens to further undermine a landmark federal voting rights law as the state of Alabama defends a Republican-drawn electoral map faulted by judges for diluting the clout of Black voters.

Alabama Solicitor General Edmund LaCour faced tough questioning from the court’s three liberal justices – Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor – as he defended the Republican-drawn map delineating the boundaries of Alabama’s seven U.S. House of Representatives districts.

A three-judge federal court panel invalidated the map. But the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision in February, let Alabama use the map for the Nov. 8 U.S. congressional elections in which Republicans are trying to regain control of Congress.

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