A May ruling by a federal three-judge panel finding the congressional redistricting map passed by Alabama Republican lawmakers in 2023 violated the Voting Rights Act will haunt Alabama “for generations,” according to State Rep. Chris Pringle (R-Mobile).
The State of Alabama is still defending its congressional map, which legislators approved in 2023. A special master hired by a three-judge panel in Birmingham redrew the map for the 2024 congressional elections after Democrats and liberal groups were successful in their initial legal challenge. The issue is still being litigated.
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 Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The new court-ordered map in the 2024 election cycle led to Democrats picking up a congressional seat in Alabama. Republicans still have hopes that the new map could be found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court at a future date, depending on the outcome of a related Louisiana lawsuit.
Pringle, chair of the Permanent Legislative Reapportionment Committee, said during an interview on Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5's "Midday Mobile” that the federal court’s ruling would haunt Alabama for generations.
“Depending on what the Supreme Court rules in Louisiana, we can appeal to the Supreme Court to undo the Milligan case and ask them to allow us to go back,” Pringle said. “Now, whether they’re going to do that, that ruling handed down by that court is going to haunt the state of Alabama for generations. Those judges were so angry at what was done and the way the Solicitor General (Edmund LaCour) handled it. They (wrote) 600 pages calling us every bad name that they can think of. It is referred to quite often in court cases. Even the Justice Department in front of the Supreme Court talked about how bad our arguments were. Kavanaugh said if we had argued the original case before the court, he would have voted with us instead of what we argued.”
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