The Alabama Center for Law and Liberty (ACLL) has filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the State of Alabama in dual congressional redistricting cases.
Last week, a federal three-judge panel in the Northern District of Alabama granted a preliminary injunction halting the district map that was approved by the Alabama Legislature and Gov. Kay Ivey. That map was set to take effect on Jan. 28.
The case consolidated three different lawsuits that argued a congressional map approved by the state legislature last fall did not give Black voters in the state a sufficient opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. The court found Alabama’s new congressional districts likely violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and ordered that a second minority-majority Congressional District be created.
The state argued that there was no way to draw a second majority-minority district without violating the state's redistricting principles or breaking up other communities of interest.
“By its very terms, the Voting Rights Act prohibits the states from impeding minorities access to the ballot box,” said Matt Clark, ACLL’s President. “However, in 1986, the Supreme Court stretched the text beyond what it says and held that the legislature must draw congressional districts based on race.
"Justice Clarence Thomas has argued for years that the Court’s approach to the Voting Rights Act has been a ‘disastrous misadventure in judicial policymaking,’ because it requires the court to engage in political theory and requires some level of racial segregation.”
The State of Alabama has appealed to the high court seeking to put the panel’s order on hold.
“The three-judge court has barred Alabama from using its lawfully enacted congressional redistricting plan on the theory that Alabama violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,” the filing states.
The ACLL’s involvement in the appeal follows their success in the recent Supreme Court decision striking down the Biden administration’s OSHA mandate.
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