NRF Applauds Court for Blocking Alabama’s Congressional Gerrymander

Washington, D.C. – Today, Marina Jenkins, Executive Director of the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF), issued the following statement in response to a federal court blocking Alabama’s attempt to resurrect the state’s previously invalidated 2023 congressional gerrymander, a map drawn with racially discriminatory intent that includes just one Black opportunity district, and ordering the state to hold the 2026 midterm elections on the previously used, race-blind drawn, court-ordered map, which includes two Black opportunity districts:

“Justice prevailed today; Alabama must use its 2023 court-adopted map—a map with two Black opportunity districts—in this year’s elections. Make no mistake, the fight for justice is far from over in states across the country where politicians are enacting gerrymanders on top of gerrymanders to erase equal representation for communities of color. The message from this panel is clear: courts must fulfill their independent duty to protect voters’ rights, not just rubber-stamp state officials’ efforts to use the Supreme Court’s Callais decision as an excuse to draw Black voters out of a say in our democracy. Politicians aiming to enact new gerrymanders in South Carolina, Georgia, and elsewhere should take note.” 

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. Nevertheless, 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 its 2023 gerrymander, which a federal district court ruled was unlawful and unconstitutional. Once the Supreme Court lifted the district court’s injunction of the 2023 map and remanded the case to the district court for further consideration in light of the Callais decision, Governor Kay Ivey 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 and a preliminary injunction to block the use of the previously invalidated congressional map. In May, a preliminary injunction hearing was held before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama to consider the plaintiffs’ request. The court’s decision to grant the injunction prevents Alabama from reverting to its previously invalidated congressional gerrymander and orders the state to hold the 2026 midterm elections on the current, court-adopted map, which includes two Black opportunity districts.

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

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