Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall today filed emergency motions on Thursday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to lift injunctions blocking Alabama from using its 2023 congressional map, arguing that the injunctions cannot survive the court’s ruling on Wednesday in Louisiana v. Callais.
The motions were filed in three redistricting cases, Allen v. Singleton, Allen v. Milligan, and Allen v. Caster, and ask the Court to act quickly to vacate the injunctions so Alabama can have the “same opportunity as other States to use a lawfully enacted congressional map free of an injunction that cannot be reconciled with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act” as recently construed by the high court.
In Callais, the Supreme Court ruled that plaintiffs challenging a state’s congressional map under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act cases cannot treat race and political affiliation as interchangeable, and if they “cannot disentangle race from the State’s race-neutral considerations, including politics, then Section 2 cannot impose liability.” Attorney General Marshall argues that the district court did not hold the plaintiffs challenging Alabama’s congressional map to that standard.
"The Supreme Court has now made clear that you cannot assume race and politics are the same thing, you have to actually show they're separate," Marshall said. "Because the lower court’s injunction cannot stand in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, we have asked the court to lift the injunction. Alabama deserves the right to use its own maps, just like every other state,” Attorney General Steve Marshall said.
The motions ask the Supreme Court to expedite the cases, vacate the injunctions and lower court judgments, and remand for proceedings consistent with Callais.
You can read the motions here, here, and here.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen said on Thursday, “As the appellant in Alabama’s redistricting case, I have taken the legal measures necessary, in cooperation with Alabama’s Attorney General Steve Marshall to ask the US Supreme Court to take quick and decisive action which will allow Alabama to pursue congressional maps that reflect the will of the people.”
“It is my hope that our right as Alabamians to draw districts will be swiftly restored and that the days of court appointed mapmakers will be behind us,” Allen said.
Governor Kay Ivey on Thursday said she supported Marshall in his filing of three emergency motions at the Supreme Court in the wake of the Callais decision.
“I applaud Attorney General Steve Marshall and Secretary of State Wes Allen for quickly filing emergency motions at the Supreme Court regarding Alabama’s redistricting case,” Ivey said. “As I have said time and again, Alabama knows our state, our people and our districts better than the federal courts or activist groups. I remain hopeful that Alabama receives a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court.”
The State of Alabama is still defending its congressional map, which legislators approved in 2023. A special master appointed by a three-judge panel in Birmingham redrew the map for the 2024 congressional elections after Democrats and liberal groups prevailed in their initial legal challenge. The issue is still being litigated. The new map resulted in Democrats picking up one seat in Alabama, Congressional District 2, with U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures (D-Mobile) in 2024.
U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus, U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco, and U.S. District Judge Terry Moorer ruled the 2023 plan violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Some have called for Alabama to redraw its map to create seven likely Republican congressional districts after the SCOTUS ruling on Wednesday.
In August, a federal court barred Alabama from redrawing its current, court-ordered congressional map again until 2030.
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