ICYMI: NRF-Supported Plaintiffs File Brief to Supreme Court of the United States for Alabama Voting Rights Case
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Jena Doyle
Doyle@redistrictingfoundation.org
ICYMI: NRF-Supported Plaintiffs File Brief to Supreme Court of the United States for Alabama Voting Rights Case
Washington, D.C. —Yesterday, plaintiffs supported by the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) submitted their merits brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in the case Merrill v. Caster, asking the Court to affirm the federal district court’s ruling finding that Alabama’s new congressional map violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the case on October 4, 2022.
“As three federal judges unanimously found in striking down Alabama’s congressional map, the map drawn by the state’s legislature unlawfully dilutes the voting power of Black Alabamians in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act as it has long been interpreted. That is a fact,” said Marina Jenkins, Director of Litigation and Policy for the NRF. “The state’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court arises not out of a genuine belief that the judges below got it wrong, but from a crass desire to simply change the law because Alabama’s political leaders don’t like the outcome of its application. It is now the responsibility of our country’s highest tribunal to faithfully apply the law without agenda. Black voters in Alabama deserve a congressional map that provides them an equal opportunity to exercise their voting power.”
A federal district court in Alabama previously blocked the state from using the new congressional map, after determining that the map dilutes the voting power of the state’s Black communities in violation of Section 2 of the VRA. The Supreme Court granted a stay of the district court’s preliminary injunction, allowing the 2022 election to proceed under the congressional map passed by the Alabama Legislature, but has not yet weighed into the merits of the case.
The full brief can be found here.
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