Alabama lobbies high court for OK on racially gerrymandered voter map

WASHINGTON (CN) — Alabama Republicans asked the Supreme Court for help Friday reinstating a congressional map found by lower courts to be an illegal racial gerrymander.

Alabama’s yearslong redistricting battle has played out alongside Louisiana’s. Now that the justices rejected the use of race to ensure minority voters had equal opportunities to participate in the electoral process in Louisiana v. Callais, Alabama says its 2023 map is lawful and should be used in upcoming elections.

“Alabama’s case mirrors Louisiana’s, and they should end the same way: with this year’s elections run with districts based on lawful policy goals, not race,” the state wrote in an emergency application.

Black Alabamians make up 27% of the state’s voting-age population but only represent the majority in one of seven of the state’s congressional districts. Alabama lawmakers have been fighting against adding a second majority-Black district for the better part of five years.

Alabama’s 2021 congressional maps split the Black Belt, breaking Montgomery into two districts for the first time. Voting rights groups challenged the maps under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting practices that discriminate based on race.

The Supreme Court found the map unlawful in 2023, ordering lawmakers to redraw the districts to include a second Black majority district. But the Republican leadership refused to comply.

A panel held a second time that the 2023 maps did not give enough representation to Black Alabamians, enjoining their use. Alabama asked the Supreme Court to halt a court-mandated redraw of its maps, but the justices refused to do so at the time.

Last year, a federal panel held the Legislature intentionally discriminated against Black voters in its 2023 maps by deliberately enacting a plan it knew did not comply with prior court orders and Voting Rights Act standards.

The panel ordered the state to continue using a previously ordered remedial plan, and scheduled further proceedings to consider placing the state under federal preclearance guidelinesthat were only lifted in 2020.

Alabama says the Supreme Court’s ruling in Callais vindicated its 2023 maps. But with quickly approaching primary elections, the state pushed the justices to issue an emergency order allowing the 2023 maps to be used for the 2026 election in anticipation that the lower courts will now have to rule in its favor.

“Alabamians should be able to vote under a lawfully enacted map that prioritizes the state’s conceded policies rather than a map that elevates race above them,” Alabama wrote.

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee rebuked Alabama’s request. John Bisognano, president of the group, said voters have already cast ballots in the congressional primaries.

“What is happening in Alabama is not happening in a vacuum,” Bisognano said. “Across the South, states are rushing to suppress Black voting power now that they mistakenly believe they can get away with it. The Alabama Legislature’s fevered rush to diminish Black voting power in their state is clear proof that protections once afforded under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act remain vital still today.”

The court asked voters challenging Alabama’s maps to respond to the application by 5 p.m. Monday.

Should the justices side with Alabama, the Heart of Dixie is ready: On Friday, the Legislature concluded a special session after passing two bills creating the path forward with its freshly approved whitewashed maps.

The state House of Representatives briefly recessed after a disturbance by activists in the gallery. House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter later confirmed the session was called in part to “[help] President Trump maintain a Republican Congress."

“As much as we would have preferred to draw a new map like our neighbors in Tennessee, the legal constraints created by [the courts] make that impossible today,” Ledbetter wrote. “Any other course of action would have all but guaranteed Alabama sends two Democrats to Congress at a time when control of the U.S. House could be decided by only a handful of seats — an outcome that our country cannot afford.”

In the quieter State Senate chamber, State Senator Vivian Davis Figures provided a unique perspective on behalf of Alabama Democrats. Figures has represented the Mobile area since 1997, succeeding her husband, who died suddenly of an aneurysm after serving the same district since 1978. Their son Shomari Figures currently serves as congressman of Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, created by a court order in 2023.

“Today we’re not just debating maps. We are debating democracy itself,” Figures said to the chamber amid a series of long speeches by fellow Democrats. “We’re debating whether every citizen in Alabama deserves equal representation under the law. We’re debating whether power matters more than principle, and we’re debating whether this Legislature will honor the Constitution of the United States and the Voting Rights Act or whether we will openly defy both.”

Figures noted minorities make up 30% of the state’s population, yet the legislation will almost ensure all seven of its congressional districts are controlled by primarily white Republicans, along with more of its legislative districts.

“Does one person one vote only matter when the outcome benefits Republicans?” she asked.

The two bills will allow new primaries to be held using the maps greenlighted by the U.S. Supreme Court, should the justices decide in Alabama’s favor.

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