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Federal court won’t delay Alabama redistricting ruling [1]

['Jemma Stephenson', 'More From Author', '- September']

Date: 2023-09-11  

A three-judge panel Monday declined Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen’s request to delay their order for a special master to draw new congressional maps for the state.

In a 26-page opinion, U.S. Circuit Court Judge Stanley Marcus and U.S. District Court judges Anna Manasco and Terry Moorer wrote that they saw “no basis” to stay their Sept. 5 ruling.

“Absent relief now, the Plaintiffs will suffer this irreparable injury until at least 2026, which is more than halfway through this census cycle,” they wrote. “The Secretary offers no reason, let alone a compelling one, why Alabamians should have to wait that long to vote under a lawful congressional districting map.”

The Alabama attorney general’s office plans to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The judges ruled last week that a congressional map approved by the Legislature in July failed to address their findings in 2022 that the state’s 2021 map unconstitutionally packed Black voters into a single congressional district and muted their voices in the political process.

Citing the high amount of racially polarized voting in Alabama — where white Alabamians tend to support Republicans and Black Alabamians tend to support Democrats — the court said the state needed to draw a second congressional district that was majority-Black “or something quite close to it.” The ruling was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last June.

The Legislature’s July map created a 7th Congressional District in the western Black Belt whose voting age population was 50.65% Black, and a 2nd Congressional District in the Wiregrass that was just under 40% Black. The judges last week ordered a special master to draw new maps, writing that they were “deeply troubled” that the map did not follow their directions.

“The law requires the creation of an additional district that affords Black Alabamians, like everyone else, a fair and reasonable opportunity to elect candidates of their choice,” the judges wrote. “The 2023 Plan plainly fails to do so.”

Allen signaled his intent to appeal last week.

“Absent a stay, the State will be compelled to cede its sovereign redistricting power to the Court so that Alabamians can be segregated into different districts based on race,” the attorney general’s office wrote in a brief.

The court rejected a stay application from the state in January 2022. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately delayed the ruling past the 2022 elections, though it ultimately sided with plaintiffs.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

This story was published earlier by the Alabama Reflector, an affiliate of the nonprofit States Newsroom network, which includes the Florida Phoenix.

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[1] Url: https://floridaphoenix.com/2023/09/11/federal-court-wont-delay-alabama-redistricting-ruling/

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