Eric Holder Statement On U.S. Supreme Court Agreeing To Alabama Redistricting Lawsuit
Eric Holder Statement On U.S. Supreme Court Agreeing To Alabama Redistricting Lawsuit
Washington, D.C. — After the Supreme Court of the United States announced it would hear a legal challenge to the Alabama congressional map and put on hold the lower court’s order requiring the immediate redraw of the state’s congressional map, Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States, released the following statement:
“The Supreme Court’s decision to stand in the way of legislatively mandated opportunity for black voters in Alabama is an ideological abuse of the Court’s power. The congressional map passed by Alabama’s Republican-led legislature is a textbook violation of the Voting Rights Act, and the lower court’s order is a straightforward application of the law as it has been interpreted for decades. This ill founded decision will force voting in the state to proceed under maps determined to be inconsistent with the law. There is more than sufficient time for primary and general elections to occur - the majority’s view otherwise is specious. With or without the Court, the decades-long fight to bring electoral fairness to Alabama will continue. The majority on the Court have aligned themselves with a past that the nation was thought to be beyond.”
A federal district court in Alabama previously enjoined the state from using the new congressional map, after determining that plaintiffs, supported by the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) in the case Caster v. Merrill, were likely to succeed in proving that the map dilutes the voting power of the state’s black communities in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The court granted the stay against the district court’s preliminary injunction, allowing the 2022 election to proceed under the congressional map passed by the Alabama Legislature.
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Contact: Jena Doyle | Doyle@redistrictingfoundation.org