Alabama officials are appealing to the Supreme Court after a three-judge panel declined to pause a ruling that struck down Republicans‘ latest congressional map in the state over alleged Voting Rights Act violations.
Republicans were told to redraw congressional districts after the Supreme Court affirmed a federal court ruling that they must make at least two of Alabama’s seven districts majority black districts, a demographic that votes overwhelmingly Democratic. Republicans redrew the map, creating one black-majority district and another plurality-black district, and the redrawing has been accused of violating the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
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Alabama officials are once more going to the Supreme Court after a three-judge panel ruled on Monday that the new map was biased against black voters and must be redrawn.
In the court filing, Alabama officials argued, “A stay pending appeal is warranted. There is ‘(1) a reasonable probability that four Justices will consider the issue sufficiently meritorious to grant certiorari’ or note probable jurisdiction; ‘(2) a fair prospect that a majority of the Court will vote to reverse the [order] below; and (3) a likelihood that irreparable harm will result from the denial of a stay.”
“The State and its voters should be allowed this Court’s review before voters are sorted into race-based districts flouting all conceivable districting principles in search of super-proportionality,” it added.
Alabama officials have previously argued they are meeting the Voting Rights Act criteria with one plan for the second district having a 40% black population, up from 30% previously.
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“We believe it does meet the Voting Rights [Act] standard because we followed all the guidelines,” state Sen. Steve Livingston, a Republican, said in July. “As an opportunity district, nobody knows what the definition of opportunity is. They didn’t give us [a definition].”
“I think we’re doing exactly what we’re supposed to do, our job, which is to put all the ideas on the table, both chambers engaged completely, and then we’ll move forward to see where things go,” Republican state Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Reed said. “Obviously, we’re going to come to some agreement between the two chambers, and that’s very important for all of us.”
