WASHINGTON — A three-judge federal panel will hear arguments Tuesday to decide whether Alabama should be subject to preclearance under the Voting Rights Act for drawing future congressional maps.
Civil rights groups are asking for the state to be subject to preclearance, which requires federal officials to approve any redistricting plans, after a federal court ruled the congressional maps drawn by Alabama’s Legislature in 2021 and 2023 were racially discriminatory. The Supreme Court upheld the lower court ruling that the 2021 map diluted Black voters’ strength.
The 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision removed Alabama from the preclearance requirement after the Supreme Court ruled the formula used to put states and counties under the requirement was outdated.
The plaintiffs argue that the Alabama officials’ actions in drawing the congressional maps resemble similar efforts to discriminate against Black voters in the state during the 1960s.
“But the undisputed record includes evidence that from 1970 through today, Alabama rejected Black people’s repeated calls to draw two majority-Black districts, despite the feasibility of creating two reasonably configured districts,” the plaintiffs said in a court filing.
The civil rights organizations want any future congressional maps through 2030 to be reviewed by the district court.
The Alabama Attorney General’s office argued that subjecting the state to the preclearance requirement is not needed because there have not been multiple constitutional violations.
“Freezing a single type of state law threatens sovereignty no matter the category, but imposing preclearance over districting is especially invasive, for even the mere ‘review of districting legislation’ works ‘a serious intrusion on the most vital of local functions,’” the state wrote in a court filing.
The state also said Alabama will forgo creating a new congressional map before 2030, making the preclearance request unnecessary.
The current congressional map, drawn by a special master, gave way to two Black federal representatives for Alabama serving together for the first time. U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, was elected to the newly redrawn Second Congressional District in 2024.
“We’re very fortunate that the judges have applied the law in the way that they have to this point, and the case is still pending,” Figures told Alabama Daily News. “We’re confident and optimistic that the district will remain the same so we can continue to have the opportunity to be able to represent people here in the state of Alabama.”
The Department of Justice opposes the plaintiff’s request to have Alabama be subject to preclearance.
“The plaintiffs’ request to impose preclearance would unnecessarily tax principles of equal sovereignty that afford Alabama the Constitutional right to manage its own elections,” United States Attorney Prim Escalona for the Northern District of Alabama said.
In June, Alabama officials again appealed the redistricting case to the Supreme Court.
The hearing on the preclearance request will begin Tuesday morning in the U.S. Northern District of Alabama.