A federal court on Monday rejected Alabama’s bid to use a newly proposed Congressional district map in upcoming elections over concerns it provides fewer opportunities for racial minorities to elect representatives of their choice. In a 225-page ruling (pdf) on Monday, the three-judge panel said that the state should have two districts, instead of one, in which black voters make up a sizeable portion of the electorate. The Alabama Legislature last year approved congressional district lines that maintain one majority-black district. Monday’s ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed in November last year on behalf of Greater Birmingham Ministries, Alabama State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and black registered voters in Alabama’s First, Second, and Seventh Congressional Districts. Judges said the newly proposed Congressional district map, put forward by Alabama’s seven-member congressional delegation, likely violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act which prohibits voting practices that discriminate on the basis of …