Since the state legislature adjourned its special session last week, reactions to Alabama's redrawn district map have varied along party lines, with many Democrats, like U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), calling it "ridiculous" and a violation of the U.S. Supreme Court's order to add another majority-black district.
"That's ridiculous. That is so completely, totally ridiculous," Pelosi said Sunday during an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union" with Dana Bash.
Among other changes, the new map increased the population of black voters to 40% in District 2, which Pelosi and other Democrats argue isn't a high enough percentage to elect a minority congressman.
Pelosi also appeared to argue the new map was racist since it cut U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham) out of areas where she was seen as an "icon," not unlike Martin Luther King Jr. and the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis.
"Terri Sewell, our member of Congress from the area, in the district they drew earlier in the week, they took her out of Selma, they took her out of Montgomery. She's an iconic figure there, and, of course, John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr — and took her out of that.
"So, something is wrong with that picture, and it's larger. You see the racism that is happening in our country. They had an article in the paper this morning about a black man who was elected mayor of a Southern town, and the whites said, you can't serve."
Pelosi theorized that Alabama Legislature may intend another showdown with the Supreme Court over the map and the Voting Rights Act.
"So it's getting to be pretty blatant. So, maybe they intend to take this back up to the Supreme Court, but they cannot," she said. "They cannot. And that's why we have to pass the Voting Rights Act. When I was not even speaker, I was a leader, we passed — we wrote it in our office, with the Republicans, bipartisan way, the Voting Rights Act."
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