Alabama Asks U.S. Supreme Court To Weigh In on Redistricting Case Again
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Monday, Sept. 11, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen (R) asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene again in Allen v. Milligan, a redistricting case challenging the state’s congressional map.
After a lower court blocked Alabama’s Republican-backed congressional plan last week for not having a second majority-Black district, as a federal court order instructed, Allen then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause the lower court’s ruling.
Last term, in a landmark ruling upholding Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), the Supreme Court affirmed that Alabama’s congressional map drawn with 2020 census data should remain blocked as it likely violated the VRA. After the Supreme Court’s decision, the case went back to the trial court so a new map could be drawn to include a second majority-Black district. However, because Alabama Republicans vehemently refused to obey a court order to pass a fair map during a special session this summer, Alabama’s new congressional map was similarly blocked earlier this month.
In blocking the Republican-backed plan on Sept. 5, a three-judge panel of two Trump appointees and one Reagan appointee wrote that “we are deeply troubled that the State enacted a map that the State readily admits does not provide the remedy we said federal law requires.”
Before going to the nation’s highest court, Allen asked the lower court to pause their own ruling, but the court declined after finding that Allen “offers no reason, let alone a compelling one, why Alabamians should have to wait that long to vote under a lawful congressional districting map.” Despite this, Allen made a similar plea to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.
Allen is shamelessly asking the Supreme Court to allow voters to vote under yet another unfair map for the 2024 election. Five justices on the Supreme Court would have to agree to grant Allen’s request. While there’s no telling what the Court will do, finding five favorable justices might be hard for Allen as five justices were in the majority of the Court’s June 2023 decision that affirmed that the state’s 2021 map should be blocked.