The ruling is the second time the court has thrown out a congressional plan enacted by the Republican-controlled state legislature, and the three-judge panel wrote that it saw little reason to give lawmakers a third chance.

Instead, a court-appointed special master will be tasked with drawing a new map ahead of next year’s election.

“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 judges wrote.

“The 2023 plan plainly fails to do so.”

More than one-quarter of Alabama’s residents are black, but under the map Republicans passed in July, only one of the state’s seven congressional districts was majority black.

The state’s lone Democratic US representative, Terri Sewell, represents the district.

The court had ordered Alabama legislators to create a second district with either a black majority or “something quite close” to comply with the Voting Rights Act.