Eric Holder Calls on SCOTUS to Reject Alabama’s Appeal of Allen v. Milligan

For Immediate Release
September 11, 2023
Contact
Jena Doyle
doyle@redistrictingfoundation.org

Eric Holder Calls on SCOTUS to Reject Alabama’s Appeal of Allen v. Milligan

State of Alabama has defied multiple federal court orders following SCOTUS’ landmark decision to uphold Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act

Washington, D.C. – Today, the state of Alabama filed an emergency application for stay pending appeal in Allen v. Milligan at the United States Supreme Court, a desperate attempt to get back to the nation’s highest court just months after the Court’s landmark decision to uphold Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in the very same case. In its application for stay, the state has asked the Court to pause the remedial process that was ordered by a federal district panel just last week. The National Redistricting Foundation (NRF), the 501(c)(3) affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, is continuing to provide financial support and direct the litigation strategy for the Caster plaintiffs in this case. 

In Alabama, Black voters make up 27% of the voting age population, though only have the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice in 14% of the congressional delegation. Yet, Alabama Republicans have been united in refusing to draw a second Black opportunity district. Republican Congressman Jerry Carl even said “by all means” the Alabama legislature should defy the federal court order. 

"This is a shameful and arrogant continuation of a sordid history in Alabama that denies equal rights to Black Alabamians, no matter how the United States Supreme Court rules,” said Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States. "We saw this sixty years ago in 1963 when George Wallace did not comply with the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education and refused to admit my late sister-in-law into the state’s university. We are seeing it right now in 2023 following the Supreme Court's decision in Allen v. Milligan mandating fairness in the state’s electoral system. In this dangerous time for our democracy, the Court must be steadfast in enforcing its own recent decision and reject Alabama Republicans' repugnant attempts to circumvent justice and retain power at the expense of the state’s citizens’ right to vote." 

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND: 

In its latest decision against the Alabama legislature's congressional map, the federal district court stated the following: “We are disturbed by the evidence that the State delayed remedial proceedings but ultimately did not even nurture the ambition to provide the required remedy. And we are struck by the extraordinary circumstances we face. We are not aware of any other case in which a state legislature — faced with a federal court order declaring that its electoral plan unlawfully dilutes minority votes and requiring a plan that provides an additional opportunity district — responded with a plan that the state concedes does not provide that district. The law requires the creation of an additional district that affords Black Alabamians, like everyone else, a fair and reasonable opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. The 2023 Plan plainly fails to do so.”

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