Alabama Voters Challenge Discriminatory Map with Support of National Redistricting Foundation
NRF Finds That Alabama Map Dilutes Black Voting Strength in Alabama
Washington, D.C. — The congressional map (H.B. 1) signed by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey is being challenged for diluting the voting power of the state’s Black communities in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) by a group of individual voter-plaintiffs with the support of the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF). The lawsuit, Caster v. Merrill, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.
“The state legislature and Governor Ivey are refusing to protect the people that they were elected to serve, and they leave us no choice but to support a challenge to this discriminatory map that diminishes the voice of Alabama’s black communities,” said Marina Jenkins, NRF Director of Litigation and Policy. “This map is the outcome of a redistricting process run by self-interested politicians only focused on maintaining power, at the expense of fair representation. Alabama’s black voices must be heard, and they deserve maps that reflect their voting power in the state.”
Between 2010 and 2020, Alabama’s Black population grew while the white population fell. According to the 2020 Census, Black Alabamians now compose more than 27 percent of the state’s population. Despite that growth, and the fact that Alabama’s Black population can support two majority-Black congressional districts, this map further entrenches the state’s white majority and includes just one majority-Black district.
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.
This is exactly why Congress must do everything it can to recognize the continuing threat of discriminatory election practices and counteract it by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, which together would ban partisan gerrymandering, strengthen protections for communities of color, and put the power in the hands of the people where it belongs.
The complaint can be found here.
Contact: Brooke Lillard | Lillard@redistrictingfoundation.org