NRF-Supported Plaintiffs Call on Federal Court to Stop Alabama from Canceling an Election to Enact a Gerrymander
Washington, D.C. – Today, plaintiffs supported by the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) filed a motion for a temporary restraining order in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama to stop Alabama from canceling the state’s ongoing congressional primaries, which are taking place on the state’s post-Milligan map, a map that includes two majority Black districts, in order to reinstate a gerrymander nearly identical to its original map, leaving Black Alabamians with just one majority Black congressional district for the 2026 midterms. The filing in this case, Caster v. Allen, can be viewed here.
“Ballots have already been cast in the state’s May 19 congressional primary elections on a map that includes two majority Black districts, and yet the state of Alabama is feverishly rushing to toss out the results of that ongoing election to impose a gerrymander that intentionally diminishes the voting power of Black Alabamians,” said Marina Jenkins, Executive Director of the NRF. “In doing so, the state is giving itself the power to determine whose votes count and whose do not, and this poses a real threat to the right to vote for all Alabamians. The court must act quickly to stop the unbridled chaos the state of Alabama is causing for its voters and allow the ongoing election to proceed on the existing map, on which ballots have already been cast.”
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, the state’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 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—discarding 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 are asking for a temporary restraining order to keep the congressional map with two majority Black districts in place for the 2026 midterm elections. The filing can be viewed here.
To learn more about the NRF’s work, click here.
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