Caster v. Merrill
Alabama
The NRF is supporting a group of individual voter-plaintiffs in a challenge to Alabama’s new congressional map. The lawsuit, Caster v. Merrill, contends that the new plan dilutes the voting power of the state’s Black communities in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).
The complaint alleges that the new congressional plan cracks Black voters in Alabama between several congressional districts, despite the fact that the Black population is sufficiently numerous and geographically compact to form a majority of the voting-age population in a second congressional district. Plaintiffs in the case are asking the court to declare that the new map violates Section 2 of the VRA and to order the enactment of a new congressional plan that includes two majority-Black congressional districts.
The case was filed on November 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.