On Wednesday, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall praised the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark majority opinion in Louisiana v. Callais.
The highly anticipated 6-3 decision from the bench effectively restricts racially based gerrymandering, creating the possibility of several newly redrawn congressional districts nationally, particularly in the South.
According to Marshall, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th and 15th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution don't require or permit States to use race in drawing voting districts.
"The Supreme Court has spoken. States cannot be forced to gerrymander by race," Marshall said. "Louisiana v. Callais is a watershed moment. The Court has shut the door on vote-dilution claims that use racial data to disguise what are really partisan disputes. Alabama has been fighting this battle for many years, and today the Supreme Court confirmed our long-held argument that States must not use race, either to help or to harm particular voters, when drawing voting districts. The Court rightly acknowledged that the South has made extraordinary progress, and that laws designed for a different era do not reflect the present reality."
He added, "We will act as quickly as possible to apply this ruling to Alabama's redistricting efforts and ensure that our congressional maps reflect the will of the people, not a racial quota system the Constitution forbids."
The court held that the evidence showed Louisiana had used "race-neutral redistricting criteria," including partisan goals to protect incumbents.
Like Louisiana, Alabama was sued following the 2020 redistricting cycle, and a federal court held that the State violated Section 2 by failing to include an additional majority-black congressional district. Last year, the court ordered Alabama to use a court-drawn map that included the additional district.
The State sought review of that decision in the Supreme Court; those applications are still pending.
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