MOBILE, Alabama – Elections in the city of Evergreen will remain under federal supervision until 2020, a judge ruled this week.

It was one of U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade's last rulings before formally closing a voting-rights case that resulted in a court-ordered redrawing of City Council districts last year. In December, the judge ordered the city to pay more than $138,000 in legal fees incurred by a group of minority plaintiffs.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down a provision of the Voting Rights Act that subjected Alabama and other jurisdictions with a history of racial bias to heightened scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice. No longer does Alabama have to get “preclearance” from federal lawyers before making changes to the election system.

Under the order handed down by Granade, however, Evergreen will have to live under a version of those restrictions and the attorney general will be allowed to assign federal observers to monitor future Evergreen elections.

Originally city lawyers had indicated they would resist those restrictions, but the order handed down this week by Granade mirrors and agreement both sides negotiated. "That's all by consent by the parties," city attorney James Anderson said.

The city will have to submit changes for review by the judge or the Department of Justice under the following two circumstances:

Any change in the City Council districts that Granade drew in response to the lawsuit brought by a group of minority voters.

Any change in the standards for determining which voters are eligible to in municipal elections.

Granade ordered the new political map after the plaintiffs alleged that the City Council gerrymandered the districts with the intend of keeping whites in the majority on the council even though the city was about 62 percent black.

The new map created a large black majority in three of the city's five council districts. An election in June – which had been delayed from the originally scheduled August 2012 election by the suit – resulted in the same racial balance. Councilman John Skinner, who is white, won re-election against three opponents in a district that had become majority black.

The judge allowed the city to annex new territory – which would necessitate a change in the council districts – without submitting to prior review as long as the city consults with a representative for the plaintiffs and the annexation does not reduce the percentage of black voters in District 1.