Court orders state to redraw congressional districts

The Alabama Legislature’s congressional redistricting plan, signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey at the conclusion of a short special session in November, likely violates the Voting Rights Act, according to a federal court ruling handed down Monday.

As such, a three-judge panel enjoined Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill from conducting congressional elections according to the plan. Also, the judges ordered the state to stay the looming Jan. 28 qualification deadline for 14 days, through Feb. 11, “to allow the Legislature the opportunity to enact a remedial plan.”

“We conclude [the plaintiffs] are substantially likely to establish … that Black Alabamians are sufficiently numerous to constitute a voting-age majority in a second congressional district … 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 … that voting in the challenged districts is intensely racially polarized, and 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.”

Black Alabamians comprise approximately 27 percent of the state’s population, according to the 2020 Census, and several advocacy organizations and members of the Legislature’s minority Democratic Party advocated for a second Black-majority congressional district. Currently, only one of Alabama’s seven congressional districts is majority Black. After the 10-year plan was approved last year, State Rep. Bobby Singleton and others filed suit.

“The appropriate remedy is a congressional redistricting plan that includes 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,” the judges concluded. “Any remedial plan will need to include two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it.”

The panel included U.S. District Judge Terry Moorer from the Southern District of Alabama, a Black appointee by former President Donald Trump. The other two judges, Stanley Marcus of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and Anna Manasco of the Northern District of Alabama, are White. They heard oral arguments in the case earlier this month and filed the injunction prior to the end of the qualifying deadline.

The Alabama Attorney General’s Office has announced it will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

State Rep. Sam Jones, a Black Mobile Democrat who served on the Permanent Legislative Committee on Reapportionment, said he wasn’t surprised by the ruling.
“Every time you have reapportionment there are lines drawn that don’t conform with whatever the law is,” he said. “There are going to be challenges to the other maps also.”

New maps or elections representing the state’s school board districts and legislative districts were not affected by the ruling. Jones said during the reapportionment process, Republicans revealed and approved the maps with little time for debate and no discussion about alternatives.

“Most of these maps were released at the last minute and then they were approved,” he said. “But there were still many votes against them.”

The bill passed the House by a vote of 65-38, then passed the Senate by a vote of 22-7.

The judges believe the 14-day timeline for alternative maps is appropriate.

“We are confident that the Legislature can accomplish its task — the Legislature enacted the plan in a matter of days last fall; the Legislature has been on notice since at least the time that this litigation was commenced months ago (and arguably earlier) that a new map might be required; the Legislature already has access to an experienced cartographer; and the Legislature has not just one or two, but at least 11 illustrative remedial plans to consult, one of which pairs no incumbents,” the judges wrote.

The judges reserved a ruling on constitutional issues raised by the plaintiffs.

Republican State Rep. Chris Pringle of Mobile County and Republican State Sen. Jim McClendon, co-chairs of the reapportionment committee, were also named as defendants in the lawsuit. If alternative maps are not submitted within 14 days, the judges also ordered Pringle and McClendon pay the court to hire its own expert to draw a map. Pringle did not respond to a request from Lagniappe for comment.

U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl, who is running for reelection in the First Congressional District, was unprepared to comment on the ruling Tuesday morning.

State Rep. Chris England, chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party, ​​tweeted he was also unsurprised, but “there is still a long way to go with some potentially treacherous terrain left to navigate. Make no mistake, the battle to protect what’s left of the [Voting Rights Act] will once again be fought in Alabama.”