• Redistricting

Allen v. Milligan

11.04.2021
  • Alabama
  • Closed

The National Redistricting Foundation supported individual voters, the Caster Plaintiffs, in challenging Alabama’s congressional map for diluting the voting power of the state’s Black communities in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The lawsuit alleged that the map violated Section 2 by packing Black voters into the state’s only majority-Black congressional district and cracking Black voters throughout three other districts rather than creating an additional district where Black voters would have the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.

A three-judge federal panel ruled in favor of the Caster Plaintiffs and held that the congressional map likely violated the VRA, granting the plaintiffs’ request for an injunction. The U.S. Supreme Court stayed the lower court’s injunction, which ensured that the state’s likely violative map would be used in the 2022 elections. Subsequently, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on October 4, 2022. During the briefing and oral argument, Alabama argued that the court should modify the longstanding judicial test used in Section 2 cases by completely removing race from the analysis, or, in the alternative, strike down Section 2 as unconstitutional.

On June 8, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Allen v. Milligan, affirming the district court’s decision that Alabama’s congressional maps are a likely violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The Court rejected the radical changes to Section 2 proposed by Alabama, including the state’s assertion that Section 2 is unconstitutional. This decision is a sweeping legal victory for voting rights advocates and a confirmation that Black voters in Alabama have had their vote diluted for far too long. The litigation continued toward a remedial process and more information about that phase can be found at the entry for the case Caster v. Allen.

Case Documents