On Friday, both Houses of the Alabama Legislature will meet on redistricting. The federal appeals court in Atlanta has set Friday, July 21, as the deadline for the state to submit a new congressional redistricting for the court to consider in the state’s ongoing Voting Rights Act case concerning congressional redistricting.
There are a lot of disagreements in the Legislature on what plan the legislators should pass. Legislative Democrats, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the state, and civil rights groups believe that to comply with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the state should pass a plan with two majority-minority districts. This would almost certainly mean a pickup of one House of Representatives seat for Democrats in the U.S. Congress as Alabamians overwhelmingly vote along racial lines, with over 90% of Black Alabamians preferring Democrats and over 80% of White Alabamians preferring Republicans in recent elections. Alabama’s Legislative Republicans have rejected calls by Democrats to turn Alabama’s Second Congressional District into a majority-minority district.
Congressional District 2 is currently represented by Congressman Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) – who served two terms in the Alabama House of Representatives from 2010 to 2018. Moore is a Republican, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, and an ardent Donald Trump supporter. Currently, 30% of the voters of CD2 are Black.
State Senator Rodger Smitherman (D-Birmingham) has introduced a plan that would turn Congressional District 2 into a majority-minority district with over 50% of the voters in the district being Black. Republicans rejected that map as well as others introduced by Sen. Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro) and other Democrats.
Republicans maintain that the court has not ruled on Milligan v. Allen that the state is in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Democrats look at the same U.S. Supreme Court ruling and the recent order by a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and say that the court did not provide the state with enough guidance to know what an “opportunity district” means.
“That could be 42% (Black voters), that could be 38%, we just don’t know,” Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Reed (R-Jasper) told reporters.
House Republicans have passed a plan by State Representative Chris Pringle (R-Mobile) they title the community of interest plan where Congressional District 2 is over 42% Black. Pringle maintains that that is close enough racially so that it is winnable by either party.
Senate Republicans have passed a competing plan by State Sen. Steve Livingston (R-Scottsboro). The Livingston plan would only raise the Black voting age population of CD2 from 30% Black to 38% Black.
Livingston said his plan kept communities of interest together and is the most compact while still providing an opportunity district for Black voters in Congressional District 2.
More radical elements in the Legislature had called for turning Alabama’s Seventh Congressional District into an opportunity district that would be potentially winnable by Republicans. Congressional District 7 is represented by Terri Sewell – the only Democrat and the only Black representative in the congressional delegation. Both Pringle and Livingston, while deeply divided on the merits of their respective plans, did not go that far, and Congressional District 7 remains majority Black.
Livingston said that his plan kept the Wiregrass whole and in the Second Congressional District, and it keeps the Gulf Coast and Mobile County whole.
The House passed Pringle’s plan on Wednesday, but when he brought his bill to the Senate, Livingston motioned to substitute the Pringle plan for the Livingston plan. The Committee passed that motion. Pringle then stormed out of the room without continuing to present his bill. His bill, now the Livingston Bill, was passed by the Committee along party lines, with Democrats voting against it and Republicans voting for it.
The one exception was State Senator Andrew Jones (D-Centre). His primary disagreement with the Livingston plan is that a small portion of northwest Etowah County would be in Congressional District 4, while 90% of Etowah County would switch to Congressional District 3. Jones told reporters he did not care whether Congressman Mike Rogers (R-AL03) or Robert Aderholt (R-AL04) represented Etowah County.
“My issue is that historically Etowah County has not been divided,” Jones, who represents Etowah and Cherokee Counties, said.
Smitherman told reporters that he and Sen. Singleton had brought their own federal lawsuit and joined Milligan and the other plaintiffs. Smitherman said that it is his understanding that the plaintiffs will be given the opportunity to tell the court whether the plan passed by the Legislature satisfies their concerns or not.
“Right now, I can’t support either (Republican) plan,” Smitherman said.
Smitherman has demanded that the Apportionment Committee prepare a report on the plans showing the likelihood of a Democrat or a Republican winning each of these.
“They can get that, or they already know it and don’t want to release it,” Smitherman said,
Since the GOP is wildly divided on which plan they will advance to federal court, there is uncertainty about what the Legislature will pass on Friday.
“Obviously, there will be negotiations,” Reed said.
A compromise plan can be substituted on the floor of either House. Failing that, any difference between the House and Senate plans would be settled by a conference committee. If that happens, then under the circumstances, both Houses will recess until the conference committee returns with a conference committee plan to vote on.
If the state and the plaintiffs cannot agree on a redistricting plan that is acceptable to both sides, a trial will likely be held in the eleventh circuit. Whatever is ultimately decided by the federal appeals court in Atlanta will likely be appealed by whichever party is dissatisfied with the outcome meaning that the Milligan case could go back to the Supreme Court, where Justice Brett Kavanaugh appears to be the swing vote.
There is even a possibility that this case may not be resolved until after the 2024 elections.
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