Montgomery, Alabama - Alabama has once again been ordered to redraw its congressional maps after they were found to disenfranchise Black voters.

A panel of three federal judges ruled on Tuesday to block Alabama's newly drawn congressional maps.

The electoral lines were found to discriminate against Black Americans by creating just one majority-Black district out of seven, even though Black voters make up around a quarter of the state's population.

In putting forward the proposed maps, Alabama Republicans had failed to comply with a Supreme Court order stipulating that their first redistricting plan likely violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act and that the state needed to add a second majority-Black district or something "close to it."

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The maps drawn in the aftermath of that ruling made Alabama's second congressional district 42.5% rather than 30% Black – keeping Black Americans, who typically vote for Democrats, well below majority status.

The three-judge panel on Tuesday affirmed the need for two majority-Black districts, writing, "We are not aware of any other case in which a state legislature – faced with a federal court order declaring that its electoral plan unlawfully dilutes minority votes and requiring a plan that provides an additional opportunity district – responded with a plan that the state concedes does not provide that district."

"The law requires the creation of an additional district that affords Black Alabamians, like everyone else, a fair and reasonable opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. The 2023 Plan plainly fails to do so."

A special master will be named to redraw the electoral lines in accordance with the judges' ruling.

The state of Alabama is expected to appeal the decision to the US Supreme Court.