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A federal court Thursday ruled that the Alabama Legislature intentionally discriminated against Black voters in approving a congressional district map in 2023 that would only have had one majority-Black district.
In a nearly 600-page order, the three-judge panel — U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, and U.S. District Judges Anna M. Manasco and Terry F. Moorer, both appointees of President Donald Trump — accused the Legislature of ignoring its orders in 2023 to replace a map approved in 2021 with a new one that had two districts where Black voters had a substantial opportunity to elect their preferred leaders.
“The Legislature knew what federal law required and purposefully refused to provide it, in a strategic attempt to checkmate the injunction that ordered it,” the opinion said. “It would be remarkable — indeed, unprecedented — for us to hold that a state legislature that purposefully ignored a federal court order acted in good faith.”
The three-judge panel also said it would consider a request from plaintiffs to place Alabama back into preclearance for future congressional redistricting efforts — which Alabama has not had to go through for over a decade following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Shelby County v. Holder.
The judges wrote that they had “no doubt” that the the 2023 map was designed to “crack Black voters across congressional districts in a manner that that makes it impossible to create two districts in which they have an opportunity to elect candidates of their choice, and thereby intentionally perpetuate the discriminatory effects of the 2021 plan.”
“So we observe that although the success of the Milligan Plaintiffs’ claim of intentional discrimination is unusual, we also do not regard it as a particularly close call,” they wrote.
Deuel Ross of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, representing plaintiffs who originally challenged an Alabama congressional map approved in 2021, said in a phone interview Thursday that the court’s decision confirms the “unfortunate reality of Alabama’s illegal and unconstitutional actions in this case.”
“It’s an incredible victory for Black voters, and all voters, really in the Black Belt, who have been denied representation by the state for decades,” Ross said.
Amanda Priest, a spokesperson for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, said Thursday that the office is “still reviewing the order and that all options remain on the table.”
Rep. Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, a co-chair of the legislative committee tasked with redistricting congressional districts, said in a text that he needs “time for the attorneys to digest the ruling before I will be able to comment.”
Messages seeking comment were left Thursday with Sen. Steve Livingston, R-Scottsboro, who led legislative redistricting efforts in 2023 with Pringle, and attorneys for Pringle and Livingston.
The decision will not immediately affect the shape of Alabama’s congressional districts, but could require the Legislature to tread carefully with future redistricting.
The court in early 2022 cited racially polarized voting in Alabama — where white Alabamians tend to vote for Republicans and Black Alabamians tend to vote for Democrats — in ruling that Alabama’s 2021 congressional map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by making it practically impossible for Black Alabamians to elect their preferred leaders. The panel ordered the Legislature to draw two congressional districts where Black voters would have an opportunity to choose those leaders.
The state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court ruling. In the summer of 2023, the Legislature approved a map that the panel later rejected, finding it fell far short of their directives. The panel appointed a special master who drew a map where two of Alabama’s seven U.S. House districts — the 2nd and the 7th – have majority-Black or near-majority Black populations.
The court’s finding of intentional racial discrimination, drawn from actions and statements from lawmakers during the redistricting process and their initial refusal to draw a second majority-Black district, is significant.
“The Legislature’s conduct and that concession thrust this case into an unusual posture: we are not aware of any other case in which a state legislature — faced with a federal court order declaring that its electoral plan unlawfully dilutes minority votes and requiring a remedial plan that provides an additional opportunity district — responded with a plan that the state concedes does not provide that district,” the judges wrote.
Ross referred to it as “the uniqueness of Alabama’s defiance of the law.”
“If there’s a court order that’s been affirmed, particularly by the Supreme Court, then the result is that the defendants need to comply with it, or any party, especially a state,” Ross said.
Laurel Hattix, an attorney with the ACLU of Alabama, said in a statement that the ruling is “an overdue acknowledgment of Alabama lawmakers’ persistent attempts to shut out Black voters from the electoral process.”
“For decades, Black Alabamians have organized and fought for not just their voting rights, but the voting rights of all Americans. Today, the courts have affirmed what Black voters have long known: fair representation is not optional — it’s a right,” Hattix said.
Ross also said the special master’s plan used in the 2024 elections will remain in effect at least through the 2030 redistricting cycle, barring intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Alabama obviously has the right to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court has an opportunity to weigh in if it wants to, but we’ll see what happens there,” Ross said.
U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, won the election in the 2nd Congressional District last November. Coupled with U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, winning an eighth term in Congress, the election marked the first time in history that Alabama elected two Black U.S. Representatives at the same time. Alabama’s population is about 27% Black; in the 19th century, it was between 45 and 49% Black.
by Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector
Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.
