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Trial over state Senate districts starts next month

The state and plaintiffs are preparing for a Nov. 12 federal trial over some state Senate districts drawn by the Legislature in 2021.

The lawsuit alleges that Senate districts in Montgomery and Huntsville weaken Black votes, thereby violating Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

“We’ll prove at trial that the 2021 plan that the Legislature adopted for the Senate map does, in fact, dilute black votes in those two areas,” Jess Unger, a senior staff attorney at Southern Poverty Law Center, told Alabama Daily News. The center is one of the plaintiffs in the suit.

In 2021, they 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. 

“The defense will establish with an abundance of evidence that Alabama’s political processes are equally open to all voters, regardless of race,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office said in a written statement to ADN. 

The lawsuit now focuses on districts 25 and 26 in Montgomery County and districts 2, 7 and 8 in Madison County.

Sen. Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery, represents District 26; Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, represents District 25.

In Madison County, those districts are represented by Republican Sens. Tom Butler, Huntsville; Sam Givhan, Huntsville, and Steve Livingston, Scottsboro.

“We believe that the maps we passed fully comply with the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution of the United States,” Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, told ADN.

“We will not stop fighting any attempt at election manipulation by special interest groups who maliciously seek to circumvent the will of Alabama voters by trying elections in court rather than at the ballot box. We will continue working hard each day to deliver results to all Alabamians ensuring their daily lives are better and their futures are brighter.”

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.

The lawsuit was filed around the same time the state’s new congressional districts were challenged, resulting in a redrawing by courts to give Black voters a second district in the state where they would have a chance to elect their preferred candidate.

The redrawing of that district, and the subsequent Nov. 5 contest between Democrat Shomari Figures and Republican Caroleene Dobson, garnered national attention because of the tight margins in the U.S. House. But plaintiffs in the state Senate lawsuit say it’s impactful too.

“A lot of extraordinarily consequential decisions are made in the Alabama Legislature,” said Jess Unger, a senior staff attorney at SPLC. “… Congress is supremely powerful, but so is the Alabama Legislature. 

“It can be just as harmful for Black voters if the Senate map, which translates Alabamians’ votes into seats in the state Senate, is drawn in a manner that dilutes Black votes. It is just as harmful as it is in a congressional map,” Unger said.

If the plaintiffs are successful, the court will order a redrawing of the districts that adds two additional districts “where Black voters in Alabama have the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice,” Unger said.

Republicans have a supermajority in both the Alabama Senate and House. Lawmakers are up for reelection in 2026 and can start raising campaign funds in May 2025.

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