Eric Holder Responds to Supreme Court Ruling on Alabama’s Congressional Map

Washington, D.C. –  Today, Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States, issued the following statement in response to the Supreme Court allowing Alabama to move forward with a congressional map drawn in 2023 to explicitly dilute the voting power of Black Alabamians: 

“This unconscionable, factually deficient decision casts aside the thoughtful, fact-filled ruling by a three-judge lower court—a majority of whom are Trump-appointed judges—that this map intentionally discriminates against Black voters.  

“Let me be very clear. There are no ‘institutionalists’ among the majority on this Supreme Court, and this decision cements the Roberts Court’s lasting legacy as the greatest enemy of the right to vote since the post-Reconstruction era. By cloaking explicit and intentional racial discrimination as somehow resembling ‘legislative good faith’ and re-casting the state of Alabama as the harmed party—in direct contradiction to their own opinion just three years ago—the Roberts Court has again put its thumb on the scale in favor of its ideological views and allies, and decidedly against American voters and the best of our traditions. 

“Through decision after decision, this Court has completely undermined the American people’s ability to decide the direction and fate of the nation. By allowing the flow of unregulated money into our electoral systems, by hindering the fight against discriminatory maps, by turning a blind eye to the evils of partisan gerrymandering and by allowing the enhancement of voter suppression, this Court has made it unnecessarily difficult for the people to elect the representatives of their choice at the federal, state, and local levels. 

“This is just the latest example of why it is so critically important for a new Congress to use its clear, explicit Constitutional power to enact—as one of its first priorities—legislation that protects the American people from now rampant partisan and racial gerrymandering and to reform this radical, unprincipled Supreme Court. All Americans must be involved in this defense of our democracy.”

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 Black opportunity 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, and that court granted the injunction, preventing Alabama from reverting to its previously invalidated congressional gerrymander and ordered the state to hold the 2026 midterm elections on the current, court-adopted map, which includes two Black opportunity districts. 

Alabama’s Secretary of State quickly sought an emergency stay of that ruling with the U.S. Supreme Court, which has granted the request.

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

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