NRF-Supported Voters Call on Federal Court to Block Alabama’s Mid-Decade Gerrymander

Washington, D.C. – Today, at 10 AM ET, a preliminary injunction hearing will begin before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in Caster v. Allen, a redistricting lawsuit that could determine which congressional map will be used for the 2026 congressional elections in Alabama. Ahead of the hearing, the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) hosted a press call featuring the organization’s Executive Director, Marina Jenkins, to preview legal arguments NRF-supported plaintiffs will deliver during the preliminary injunction hearing. The NRF is directing litigation and providing financial support on behalf of the Caster plaintiff group in this case.

Below are excerpts from remarks as delivered by Marina Jenkins, Executive Director of the NRF. The full remarks can be viewed here:

“Since Callais, pundits and politicians have been quick to declare Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act dead. But our filing with the Court has a clear response: cancel the burial. 

“Callais narrowed Section 2—but it did not kill it. And this case clears every bar Callais set.”

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“Here’s the bottom line: Alabama is attempting to cancel an election to reinstall a map that a federal court found was drawn with racially discriminatory intent. That is wrong, it is unlawful, and it must be stopped.

“No other Section 2 case comes to court with a record like this one: a finding of intentional racial discrimination, a Supreme Court ruling affirming underlying facts, a Special Master Plan drawn completely race-blind, and a completed election in which ballots have already been cast.”

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“We are asking this court to block Alabama’s gerrymander, protect the votes already cast, and require Alabama to conduct its congressional elections under a lawful map.”

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 in order to use its previously invalidated congressional map. Now, they are asking the court for a preliminary injunction to block the implementation of Alabama’s resurrected gerrymander. The court’s decision following this hearing could determine which congressional map will be used for the 2026 congressional elections in Alabama.

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

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