Alabama officials will soon find out if the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold a lower court order that an appointed third party draw the congressional map ahead of next year’s elections or allow the state to move forward, even if temporarily, with a map Republican leaders adopted in July.
Meanwhile, the state plans to appeal to the Supreme Court the three-judge panel’s ruling this month that the Legislature didn’t follow previous court orders about creating a second congressional district in Alabama that is close to majority minority.
On the most recent episode of Capitol Journal, Attorney General Steve Marshall and Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, talked to Todd Stacy about their different expectations from the high court.
Marshall is asking the high court to allow the map approved in July to be used as the state appeals the base decision.
“There’s an urgency here for us in getting some certainty about where we stand because Oct. 1 is kind of the timeframe in which our secretary of state and his team need to be able to know what map we’re using in terms of the election,” Marshall said.
England said the Legislature didn’t give the Supreme Court any choice but to rule again, otherwise it would reward Alabama for ignoring and defying a court order.
The Supreme Court in June upheld the 2022 lower court decision about a second opportunity district for Black voters, forcing lawmakers to redraw the map in July.
England called the Legislature’s actions in the summer special session “outright defiance.”
The new map raised the percentage of Black voters in Congressional District 2 from about 32% to nearly 40%.
“You can’t as the Supreme Court reward that behavior because everybody else will essentially attempt to do the same thing,” England said. “If we’re going to have law and order, you have to respect it. You have to respect the system.
“I am confident the Supreme Court will not reward Alabama’s defiance by granting a stay and requiring us to use this illegal map for another two-year cycle,” England said.
Asked why state leaders didn’t get the percentage of Black voters higher, Marshall said the Allen decision never cited a specific target.
“There was no real clarity given with what’s the operative percentage,” Marshall said. He also noted that three plaintiffs disagree on what a new map should look like.
“You’ve seen the numbers raised … but that’s not the only focus,” Marshall said, including keeping communities of interest together.
Under the newest map, the Black Belt is no longer split among three districts, but two.
Marshall also said he thought the Legislature had a difficult task and did the best it could.
England said the argument is not about proportionality.
“It’s about making sure African-Americans, minorities, have the ability to elect their candidate of choice,” he said.
“That is a different question from proportionality. We’re not about a percentage versus that ability to elect. We’re talking about if the map itself diminishes a Black person’s ability to elect a candidate of choice. That’s a different question.”
Marshall discussed some of what the state’s argument for the Supreme Court would be.
“The intent for that appeal is to be able to demonstrate to the Supreme Court how it is that that map that was passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor is one that responded to some of the concerns in the (June) Supreme Court decision,” Marshall said.
He said that existing, historical lines were disregarded in the newest map to meet the court mandate.
“We looked to issues like compactment, communities of interest, that we weren’t dividing counties and were respecting county lines and believe that that Legislature came together with a map that was consistent with those traditional redistricting principles but also with the concept of creating an opportunity district the plaintiffs have required.
“Obviously the three-judge panel has rejected that, but that’s what appeals are for and we hope the opportunity will be given to us to do that again at the Supreme Court.”
If a special master does redraw a map with a nearly 50% Black population in District 2, England said that would bring new resources but it also requires new coalitions among Democrats.
“In order to take advantage of this new opportunity, everyone has to be sitting at the table with the same amount of power to create policy, platform and also impact,” he said.