By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) -Alabama's Republican-drawn congressional map illegally dilutes Black residents' voting power, a panel of federal judges ruled on Tuesday, a boost for Democrats' chances to win back a U.S. House majority in the 2024 election.

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, the 7th, was majority Black. The state's lone Democratic U.S. 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.

(Reporting by Joseph AxEditing by Colleen Jenkins)