On Friday, Jan 28, the state of Alabama filed a motion for an administrative stay to the U.S. Supreme Court as well as a request for an appeal directly to the court from Monday’s ruling of a three-judge federal district court. The panel of judges had enjoined the use of the newly drawn Alabama congressional district map on its finding that the map likely violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
The federal district court panel concluded last week that the congressional map should have 2 majority-Black districts (or districts in which Black voters would be able to choose the candidate of their choice) instead of 1. The court gave the state just 2 weeks to draw a compliant map. The filing today is a direct appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court for an immediate stay of the district court’s decision and also an application for appeal to the high court to take up the case. The application for the stay does not mince words in describing the lower court’s decision as a serious legal error.
“The preliminary injunction of a State’s electoral districts at this eleventh hour is by itself extraordinary. But all the more extraordinary is the legal error that pervades the injunction here. The court-ordered redraw marks a radical change from decades of Alabama’s congressional plans. It will result in a map that can be drawn only by placing race first above race-neutral districting criteria, sorting and splitting voters across the State on the basis of race alone.”
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