On Monday an Alabama Federal District Court blocked the new congressional map enacted in November of last year. The order gives the legislature 14 days to enact a new map that the court advises should include ” either an additional majority-Black congressional district, or an additional district in which Black voters otherwise have an opportunity
to elect a representative of their choice.” Read the opinion here.
Alabama’s congressional map has had one majority-Black district since 1992 (District 7), and the map adopted in 2021 retained that district. Plaintiffs had argued that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act applies in this case, and requires a second voting-age majority Black district. The court agreed. If the legislature fails to meet its 2-week deadline, the court intends to enlist a special master to draw the remedial districts. Read the full document below.
“More particularly, we conclude that the Milligan plaintiffs are substantially likely to establish each part of the controlling Supreme Court test, including: (1) that Black Alabamians are sufficiently numerous to constitute a voting-age majority in a second congressional district (Black Alabamians comprise approximately 27% of the State’s population, and Alabama has seven congressional seats); (2) that Alabama’s Black population in the challenged districts is sufficiently geographically compact to constitute a voting-age majority in a second reasonably configured district (the Milligan plaintiffs and the Caster plaintiffs submitted many illustrative plans that include a second majority-black district and respect Alabama’s traditional redistricting principles); (3) that voting in the challenged districts is intensely racially polarized (this is not genuinely in dispute); and (4) that under the totality of the circumstances, including the factors that the Supreme Court has instructed us to consider, Black voters have less opportunity than other Alabamians to elect candidates of their choice to Congress.”
Media Coverage
Alabama’s new congressional map blocked by judges (Politico)
Court Throws Out Alabama’s New Congressional Map (NY Times)
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