The current redistricting cycle has been a long-running legal saga for Alabamians. The state drew racially discriminatory congressional maps in 2021, defied federal court orders to add another majority-Black district, approved new maps that were struck down by the same (outraged) federal court, appealed again to the U.S. Supreme Court and is now at risk of being put under federal supervision.
In a scathing ruling last month, a panel of three federal judges – two of whom were appointed by President Donald Trump – concluded that the Alabama Legislature “intentionally ignored a federal court order for the purpose of (again) diluting minority votes” and could make the same move “again, and again, and again.”
Given Alabama’s refusal to comply with court orders, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, a group of Black voters, want the state put back under federal preclearance – in which a state or locality must get federal approval before it can make changes to election-related maps, laws or policies. (Most southern states, because of their histories of racial discrimination in voting, were under this system until 2013, when the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder.)
In its ruling last month, the court did not signal how it could rule on the request. But it did make a point of saying Alabama had proven itself unwilling to follow the law when it wasn’t under federal preclearance.
“The 2020 redistricting cycle in Alabama — the first cycle in 50 years that Alabama has been free of the strictures of federal preclearance — did not have to turn out this way,” the court wrote. “We wish it had not, but we have eyes to see the veritable mountain of evidence that it did.”
Alabama filed a brief this week arguing preclearance would be “inappropriate and unconstitutional” unless it had “engaged in such widespread and persistent discrimination that case-by-case litigation is inadequate to protect the right to vote.” The plaintiffs haven’t cleared that hurdle, the state argued.
Of course, even if Alabama is placed under federal preclearance, it’s unclear how much that will protect minority voters in the state. Under Trump, the ability of the Department of Justice’s civil rights division to fight racial discrimination in voting has been decimated.
Still, if nothing else, taking away Alabama’s right to set its own congressional map would send a stark message about the ongoing persistence of racial bias in voting — six decades after Congress aimed to end it once and for all. Read more about Alabama’s legal battle here.
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