The Supreme Court has put on hold a lower court ruling that Alabama must draw new congressional districts before the 2022 elections, boosting Republican chances to hold six of the state’s seven seats in the House of Representatives. The court’s action Monday, by a 5-4 vote, means the upcoming elections will be conducted under a map drawn by Alabama’s Republican-controlled legislature that contains one majority-Black district, represented by a Black Democrat, in a state in which more than a quarter of the population is Black.Shortly after the decision, reactions poured in from state politicians. Read them below.Alabama Democratic Party“Today’s SCOTUS decision means that the canary in the coal mine just died. If there was ever a time for Congress to act on voting rights legislation, now would be it. Make no mistake, this is not a good outcome. Tonight, we will feel the sorrow that comes from watching our forbearers’ hard-won work be wiped out with the stroke of a pen from the shadows. But tomorrow is a new day with new possibilities. And we will fight, work and organize to regain and protect voting rights for Americans of all colors.”Alabama Republican Party”This is a great victory for the Republican Party, the state of Alabama and voters in every congressional district. This election cycle had already started, and the Supreme Court agreed with Attorney General Steve Marshall and the Alabama Republican Party’s request to allow this primary to move forward without undue disruption. We want to thank A.G. Marshall and our talented legal team for the hard work that made this possible.” U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt“I applaud the Supreme Court for this decision. Making wholesale changes to the Congressional maps this late into the 2022 election cycle would have caused chaos, not just for the state’s election officials, but for all Alabama voters.“I’m confident these lines, which were fairly drawn, will stand for this next decade. It is clear, that the challenge to these lines is part of a coordinated effort across the nation to challenge Republican-drawn lines. At the same time, we are seeing dramatic gerrymandering in Democrat-led states, like New York, to eliminate Republican districts.”U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks“Activist federal judges ignored established law to usurp Congressional maps drawn by Alabama’s elected legislators. It is great news the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the racist and illegal interventionist order because ‘the merits (were not) clear cut in favor of the plaintiff’ and the liberal, activist three-judge panel order violated the requirement that their order not cause ‘significant cost, confusion, or hardship’ to Alabama’s election processes. Most importantly, the Supreme Court agreed to consider the three-judge order’s merits at a later time, without radically disrupting the 2022 election process that is well underway. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will then reject, not promote, racism.” U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell“Today’s Supreme Court order is yet another blow to the fight for fair Black political representation that is at the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). The ruling allows the votes of Black Alabamians to be diluted and further undermines Section 2 of the VRA.“This order underscores the urgent need for Congress to enact my bill—the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act—which would restore much-needed federal oversight to ensure that minority voters are fairly represented. Black Alabamians deserve nothing less.”Attorney General Steve Marshall“I’m gratified that the Supreme Court has stepped in to halt the district court’s order, which would have resulted in a congressional map that would have unconstitutionally divided Alabamians based on race. As we have explained throughout this litigation, Alabama’s 2021 plan is an ordinary plan that looks much like the plan approved by a federal court in 1992, the plan approved by a majority-Democratic legislature in 2001, and the plan approved by a majority-Republican legislature in 2011. Plaintiffs demand a significant overhaul to the map to create a second majority-black district, but their own experts showed that no such map could be drawn unless traditional race-neutral principles took a back seat to voters’ race. Indeed, one expert used her algorithm to draw 2 million random versions of Alabama’s map based on race-neutral principles and not a single one had two majority-black districts. That is why each of the plans proposed by Plaintiffs would split Mobile County for the first time ever, to join voters in Mobile with voters as far away as Phenix City based on race, all while dividing long-recognized communities centered on the Gulf Coast’s unique economy and culture. “Today, the Supreme Court ensured that such a result will not befall the State this year. We will now have the chance to further brief the case and argue it to the Supreme Court, and we’re confident we will ultimately prevail.”
The Supreme Court has put on hold a lower court ruling that Alabama must draw new congressional districts before the 2022 elections, boosting Republican chances to hold six of the state’s seven seats in the House of Representatives.
The court’s action Monday, by a 5-4 vote, means the upcoming elections will be conducted under a map drawn by Alabama’s Republican-controlled legislature that contains one majority-Black district, represented by a Black Democrat, in a state in which more than a quarter of the population is Black.
Shortly after the decision, reactions poured in from state politicians. Read them below.
Alabama Democratic Party
“Today’s SCOTUS decision means that the canary in the coal mine just died. If there was ever a time for Congress to act on voting rights legislation, now would be it. Make no mistake, this is not a good outcome.
Tonight, we will feel the sorrow that comes from watching our forbearers’ hard-won work be wiped out with the stroke of a pen from the shadows.
But tomorrow is a new day with new possibilities. And we will fight, work and organize to regain and protect voting rights for Americans of all colors.”
Alabama Republican Party
“This is a great victory for the Republican Party, the state of Alabama and voters in every congressional district. This election cycle had already started, and the Supreme Court agreed with Attorney General Steve Marshall and the Alabama Republican Party’s request to allow this primary to move forward without undue disruption. We want to thank A.G. Marshall and our talented legal team for the hard work that made this possible.”
U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt
“I applaud the Supreme Court for this decision. Making wholesale changes to the Congressional maps this late into the 2022 election cycle would have caused chaos, not just for the state’s election officials, but for all Alabama voters.
“I’m confident these lines, which were fairly drawn, will stand for this next decade. It is clear, that the challenge to these lines is part of a coordinated effort across the nation to challenge Republican-drawn lines. At the same time, we are seeing dramatic gerrymandering in Democrat-led states, like New York, to eliminate Republican districts.”
U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks
“Activist federal judges ignored established law to usurp Congressional maps drawn by Alabama’s elected legislators. It is great news the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the racist and illegal interventionist order because ‘the merits (were not) clear cut in favor of the plaintiff’ and the liberal, activist three-judge panel order violated the requirement that their order not cause ‘significant cost, confusion, or hardship’ to Alabama’s election processes. Most importantly, the Supreme Court agreed to consider the three-judge order’s merits at a later time, without radically disrupting the 2022 election process that is well underway. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will then reject, not promote, racism.”
U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell
“Today’s Supreme Court order is yet another blow to the fight for fair Black political representation that is at the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). The ruling allows the votes of Black Alabamians to be diluted and further undermines Section 2 of the VRA.
“This order underscores the urgent need for Congress to enact my bill—the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act—which would restore much-needed federal oversight to ensure that minority voters are fairly represented. Black Alabamians deserve nothing less.”
Attorney General Steve Marshall
“I’m gratified that the Supreme Court has stepped in to halt the district court’s order, which would have resulted in a congressional map that would have unconstitutionally divided Alabamians based on race. As we have explained throughout this litigation, Alabama’s 2021 plan is an ordinary plan that looks much like the plan approved by a federal court in 1992, the plan approved by a majority-Democratic legislature in 2001, and the plan approved by a majority-Republican legislature in 2011. Plaintiffs demand a significant overhaul to the map to create a second majority-black district, but their own experts showed that no such map could be drawn unless traditional race-neutral principles took a back seat to voters’ race. Indeed, one expert used her algorithm to draw 2 million random versions of Alabama’s map based on race-neutral principles and not a single one had two majority-black districts. That is why each of the plans proposed by Plaintiffs would split Mobile County for the first time ever, to join voters in Mobile with voters as far away as Phenix City based on race, all while dividing long-recognized communities centered on the Gulf Coast’s unique economy and culture.
“Today, the Supreme Court ensured that such a result will not befall the State this year. We will now have the chance to further brief the case and argue it to the Supreme Court, and we’re confident we will ultimately prevail.”
