The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a stunning ruling today related to a closely-watched congressional redistricting case in Alabama that critics have said diminishes the Black vote.

The surprise ruling was mostly along party lines, with most of the conservative justices, including Clarence Thomas, voting against the ruling which cleared with a 5-4 majority. Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was nominated for the post by former President Donald Trump and appointed in 2018, provided the vote that bucked his fellow conservative justices’ views.

The case would ultimately call for the creation of a second district with a large Black population.

The ruling that found a violation of the Voting Rights Act in Alabama, where a congressional map that has only Black seat out of seven congressional districts. The crux of the issue is the has a Black population that accounts for at least one in every four residents in the state.

In October, the Supreme Court permitted the controversial map to be used for the 2022 mid-term elections. The odds of the conservative justices would make it more difficult for provisions of the Voting Rights Act to pushback against redistricting plans deemed racially discriminatory.

More about the congressional redistricting in Alabama and the SCOTUS decision can be found here.