Allen v. Milligan

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Allen, Alabama Secretary of State, et al. v. Milligan et al. is a suit heard in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the Alabama State Legislature's reapportionment of Congressional districts in Alabama following the 2020 U.S. Census.

The existing Congressional district map, using data from the 2010 U.S. Census, had been passed as Act of Alabama 2011-518 during the 2011 Alabama legislative session and placed in the Alabama State Code as Section 17-14-70. As the next census approached, that map was already the subject of legal challenges based on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) and the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In Chestnut v. Merrill, brought on June 13, 2018, it was established that the extended "finger" of the 7th Congressional District of Alabama was created to exclude Black voters in Jefferson County from other, predominantly white districts. Because the state legislature was to redraw the district map prior to the next election, Judge Karon Bowdre ruled on March 17, 2020 that the case was moot.

Another suit, Bobby Singleton, et al. v. John H. Merrill, Alabama Secretary of State (No. 2:21-cv-1291), was filed on September 27, 2021 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama by Bobby Singleton, Rodger Smitherman, Eddie Billingsley, Leonette W. Slay, Darryl Andrews, and Andrew Walker. The plaintiffs noted that an upcoming special session would consider reapportionment and sought an order recognizing that maps that preserved the conditions which made the 2011 map non-compliant would also be non-compliant. They sought the court's support for an alternate "whole county" plan which they argued would comply with the VRA while also restoring the longstanding practice of not splitting counties between districts.

2021 redistricting

Governor Kay Ivey called for a second special legislative session to begin on October 28, 2021 to modify the state's voting districts. The legislature's Reapportionment Committee began meeting on October 26 to consider new Congressional district lines, as well as state House and Senate districts, and Alabama State Board of Education districts. As a result of that session, the Republican majority adopted a new district map, referred to in legislation as "Pringle Congressional Plan 1," that largely retained the conditions which had already been challenged in federal courts. Governor Ivey signed the map into law, as Act of Alabama 2021-555, on November 4.

Following the law's passage, two more lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court on November 16 by separate groups of plaintiffs, each seeking orders enjoining then Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill from conducting elections using that map. These suits were filed as:

  • Marcus Caster, et al. v. John H. Merrill, Alabama Secretary of State, et al. (No. 2:21-cv-1536) was filed by Marcus Caster, Lakeisha Chestnut, Bobby Lee Dubose, Benjamin Jones, Rodney Allen Love, Manasseh Powell, Ronald Smith, and Wendell Thomas. The plaintiffs contended that the new districts as drawn violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Judge Anna Manasco was assigned the case. She ruled on January 22, 2023 that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail, and ordered the legislature to pass a new plan within 14 days that included an additional district in which Black voters would have the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.
  • Evan Milligan v. John H. Merrill, Alabama Secretary of State, et al. (No. 2:21-cv-1530) was filed by Evan Milligan, Shalela Dowdy, Letetia Jackson, Khadidah Stone, Adia Winfrey, Greater Birmingham Ministries, and the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP. In addition to the Attorney General, the suit named Jim McClendon and Chris Pringle, co-chairs of the Alabama Permanent Legislative Committee on Reapportionment, as defendants.

2022 arguments

2023 redistricting

Governor Ivey called another special session to begin on July 17, 2023 for the legislature to adopt a new map.

The legislature's Permanent Legislative Committee on Reapportionment, co-chaired by Representative Chris Pringle (R-District 101) and Senator Steve Livingston (R-District 8), held a public hearing on July 13 and subsequently voted 14-6 in the Senate and 74-27 in the House, both along party lines, to adopt versions of a "Communities of Interest Plan" which kept District 7 as the only majority-Black district. The two versions were reconciled in a conference committee and the result passed both chambers and was signed into law by Governor Ivey on Friday, July 21.

2023 court order

The 3-judge panel that found the 2021 map unconstitutional held a hearing on August 14 to determine if the state's revisions complied with their order.

On September 25 Special Master Allen submitted three "Remedial Plans", prepared with technical assistance from David Ely's Compass Demographics of San Gabriel, California, who was approved by both parties. The new maps were designed to meet the court's instruction that the the map should remedy the state's violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by creating a second district in which Black voters had an opportunity to elect a representative, while maintaining districts with equal populations, and in compliance with all other Constitutional and legal requirements.

On September 26, 2023 the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order declining to hear Alabama's emergency application to delay the District Court's remedy.

The parties re-convened before judges Marcus, Manasco, and Moorer on October 3 to present any objections. The 3-judge panel ordered the adoption of the Special Master's "Proposed Remedial Plan #3", which had the fewest objections from the plaintiffs, for the 2024 election cycle. That plan kept Henry County with other wiregrass counties in District 1, and kept larger portions of Birmingham and Mobile within single districts compared to the other proposals.

Secretary of State Wes Allen announced that his office would comply with the court's order, and Attorney General Steve Marshall dropped the state's "interlocutory appeal" to the Supreme Court.

References

External links

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