Seems pretty similar to the Jacksonville split in Florida, right? And that one's been found to be fine.
Point of order – it hasn't yet been found to be fine, that lawsuit hasn't yet been decided. Nevertheless, you are correct that it probably doesn't violate section 2 (the dispute is over the Florida Constitution's retrogression and partisan fairness provisions), so for these purposes it might be analogous provided that a majority black district in Huntsville is impossible to draw.
Yeah that's what's currently unclear about the VRA. Drawing a 50% black seat here is impossible, but drawing a functional seat is possible. Much legal precedent has used the ability to draw a 50%+ seat as a trigger for VRA, even if the seat ultimately drawn to remediate the problem is less than 50%.
