On November 4, 2021, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed into law a new congressional map with redrawn boundaries for the state’s seven districts. The map included just one majority-Black district, just as it has since 1992, even though Black citizens now comprise over 27% of the state’s population.

In the United States Supreme Court case Allen v. Milligan, opponents of the state’s congressional redistricting map argued it violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because it dilutes the voting power of the state’s Black population. They contend the map limits Black voters’ ability to elect their preferred candidates to just one district by carving up the Black population in surrounding districts to ensure their preferences are drowned out by the white majority.

Abha Khanna, a guest lecturer in Professor Lisa Manheim’s Election Law class and partner at Elias Law Group in Seattle, represented the respondents in Allen and argued the case before the Court on October 4, 2022. When the Court ruled 5-4 in favor of Khanna’s clients on June 8, 2023, many considered the ruling a watershed moment for voting rights proponents throughout the country.

Follow along as Khanna, a renowned voting rights and redistricting attorney, provides first-hand insight on the historic case and what impact she thinks the ruling will have throughout the United States.