Supreme Court Voting Rights

Alabama is asking the Supreme Court to allow it to use a congressional map favoring Republicans in this year’s elections, despite a lower court's ruling the map intentionally discriminates against Black people. The state filed an emergency appeal with the justices Wednesday, a day after a three-judge court blocked a map with a Black majority in just one of Alabama's seven congressional districts. The judges ordered Alabama to use a court-ordered map with two districts with large Black populations. The appeal is the latest development following last month’s Supreme Court ruling weakening the Voting Rights Act and part of a broader push by President Donald Trump to try to preserve Republicans’ slim House majority.

The Supreme Court has ruled for a Black death row inmate from Mississippi who claims there was racial bias in the makeup of the jury that convicted him. By a 5-4 vote Thursday, the justices sided with Terry Pitchford, who was sentenced to death for his role in the killing of a grocery store owner in northern Mississippi. There were 11 white jurors and one Black juror in a trial with similarities to that of another Black man on Mississippi’s death row, whose conviction the high court overturned seven years ago. If Pitchford's conviction is overturned, the state could seek to retry him. Pitchford's lawyer says he's “entitled to a fair trial.”

The Supreme Court has upheld a broad reading of the authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission to recoup ill-gotten gains from people who engage in securities fraud. The justices ruled unanimously Thursday against Ongkaruck Sripetch, who pleaded guilty to selling unregistered securities as part of a scheme involving high-risk penny stocks. The Los Angeles resident had challenged a court order to repay more than $3 million, including interest. The issue in the case was whether the SEC had to prove individual investors lost money as a result of buying the stocks. The Supreme Court ruled it did not.