A lawsuit over state Senate district lines in Montgomery and Huntsville has been set for a Nov. 12 trial date.
U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco set the Birmingham trial outline late last month, according to court documents.
Plaintiffs in 2021 alleged that nearly a quarter of Alabama Senate and House districts were racially gerrymandered when the Legislature redrew lines based on 2020 census data. Late last year, the scope of the lawsuit was narrowed.
Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office is representing the state in the federal lawsuit. The Legislative Contract Review Committee this month approved a $100,000 contract between Marshall’s office and a Michigan-based constitutional law professor to provide witness testimony in its defense of the lines.
“We strongly believe the remaining two claims lack merit,” Marshall’s office told ADN recently. “The office will continue to defend Alabama’s laws and fight attempts to redraw our districts based on racial goals rather than common interest.”
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of voters in Tuscaloosa and Montgomery and plaintiffs included Greater Birmingham Ministries, the Alabama NAACP, the ACLU of Alabama and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Sen. Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery, represents District 26; Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, represents District 25.
Those districts are represented by Republican Sens. Tom Butler, Huntsville; Sam Givhan, Huntsville, and Steve Livingston, Scottsboro.
State lawmakers in 2021 redrew State House and congressional district lines based on 2020 census numbers. The state was also sued over the congressional district map and a new court-ordered map that gives Black voters a better chance at electing the candidate of their choice in two of the state’s seven districts is now in effect.
A slew of Republican and Democrat candidates in Alabama’s new Second Congressional District were narrowed to four earlier this month.