NRF-Supported Voters File Preliminary Injunction to Block Alabama’s Mid-Decade Gerrymander

Washington, D.C. – Today, plaintiffs supported by the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) filed a preliminary injunction to block the attempted resurrection of Alabama’s previously invalidated 2023 congressional gerrymander and order Alabama to hold the 2026 midterm elections on the previously used, court-ordered map. As the filing makes clear, each of the Section 2 elements Callais highlighted has already been proven by plaintiffs, building on the U.S. Supreme Court’s full affirmation of the district court findings in Allen v. Milligan, which the high court emphasized it did not overrule in Callais. The NRF is directing litigation and providing financial support on behalf of the Caster plaintiff group in this case. The preliminary injunction can be viewed here. 

“Alabama’s rush to discard ballots in order to force the use of a congressional map that intentionally discriminates against Black Alabamians and dilutes their votes—as already determined by a federal court—is a craven and shameful attack on our democracy, and on the rights of all Alabama voters,” said Marina Jenkins, the Executive Director of the National Redistricting Foundation. “The state should not be allowed to change the rules of an election that is already underway, and the courts must block this egregious scheme before any further damage is done.”

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

On behalf of the Caster plaintiff group, the NRF initiated Allen v. Milligan, the successful lawsuit that struck down Alabama’s 2021 congressional map for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). In 2023, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold and enforce Section 2 of the VRA in Allen v. Milligan, Alabama was ordered to enact a VRA-compliant congressional map that included two Black-opportunity districts.

At the time of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which gutted Section 2 of the VRA, Alabama’s congressional primary elections were already underway on the state’s VRA-compliant map. Meanwhile, right after that decision, the Alabama Legislature went into special session to pass a bill that would cancel and reschedule the state’s ongoing primary elections in several congressional districts and to reinstate a 2023 gerrymander, nearly identical to the state’s original 2021 gerrymander, once the U.S. Supreme Court granted the state permission to enact that map. Once the Supreme Court lifted its injunction, Governor Kay Ivy called a special primary election for the 1st, 2nd, 6th, and 7th congressional districts under the reinstated gerrymander, which includes just one majority-Black district—threatening ballots cast in those congressional districts on the state’s prior map. 

In order to halt Alabama’s rush to gerrymander, the NRF-supported Caster plaintiffs asked the court for a temporary restraining order to prevent Alabama from canceling its primaries. Now, they are asking the court for a preliminary injunction to block the implementation of Alabama’s resurrected gerrymander.

To learn more about the NRF’s work, click here.

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