Eric Holder Statement on Alabama’s Final Congressional Map

For Immediate Release
October 5, 2023
Contact
Brooke Lillard
lillard@redistrictingfoundation.org

Eric Holder Statement on Alabama’s Final Congressional Map

New Map is the Result of NRF-Backed Litigation that Protected Section 2 of the VRA and Led to Creation of Alabama’s Additional Black Opportunity District

Washington, D.C. – Today, Alabama has a fairer congressional map with an additional Black opportunity district as a result of a legal challenge brought by the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF), the 501(c)(3) affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC). A federal three-judge panel in Alabama adopted a compliant map to replace the previous gerrymandered map, which had been struck down due to its failure to provide Black Alabamians an equal opportunity to participate in the political process. As a result of the court-adopted map, Alabama could have two Black Members of Congress representing the state simultaneously for the first time in history.

“In spite of the shameful intransigence of Alabama Republicans, justice has finally prevailed in the state. With this new, fairer map, and for the first time ever, Black voters in Alabama could have two members of Congress representing their interests at the same time. This historic development will strengthen voting rights and ensure equal representation for so many Americans, ” said Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States. “Other states with pending Section 2 cases should view this map, and this process, as both an example of basic fairness and a warning that denying equal representation to Black voters, violating the Voting Rights Act, and defying federal court orders is a direct tie to an odious past and will no longer be tolerated.”

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

In its Allen v. Milligan decision, the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed a district court order that stated the following: “As the Legislature considers such plans, it should be mindful of the practical reality, based on the ample evidence of intensely racially polarized voting adduced during the preliminary injunction proceedings, that any remedial plan will need to include two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it.”

In defiance of that order, the Alabama Legislature drew a map that included just one Black opportunity district, despite the fact that the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the lower court’s decision that in Alabama such a map is a violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The second congressional district in their map, which was also then rejected by the court, had a Black Voting Age Population (BVAP) of only 39.93 percent—an amount that fell far short of what is necessary and required to allow Black voters in Alabama an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice pursuant to Section 2 of the VRA.

The NRF was central in the legal challenge against the state of Alabama’s gerrymandered remedial map, which ultimately led to the court to adopt the new map, which gives Black voters the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice in two congressional districts. 

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