Special master deadline to finish redistricting maps is today

Monday is the court’s deadline for the special master to complete his work on redrawing Alabama’s Congressional districts. On Friday, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to soon rule on Alabama’s emergency appeal to keep the partisan congressional district lines drawn by the Alabama Legislature in a July special session in place.

The three-judge panel has ordered the state to draw a new congressional district map with a second majority-Black district, or something close to it. The legislature submitted a map that increased the percentage of Black voters in Alabama’s Second Congressional District from 30 percent Black voters to 39.9 percent. The three-judge panel ruled that that map still violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

State Representative Jim Hill (R-Odenville) told the St. Clair County Republican Party on Thursday the three-judge panel ordered the state to submit a plan with two majority-minority or very close to it. “The Legislature passed a map with a 40% Black district. The three-judge panel absolutely did not accept that,” Hill said.

Hill said that this case, and its implications in other states has national repercussions on control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“The Republicans hold a (House) majority right at this moment, but it is very narrow,” Hill said. “It very easily could swing the majority of Congress back to the Democrats.”

Attorney General Steve Marshall (R-Alabama) asked the three-judge panel to stay their redrawing of the congressional district maps while the state appeals to the Supreme Court. The three-judge panel refused, ruling that it was unlikely that the Supreme Court would find in the state’s favor.

Marshall and the state’s attorneys are now asking the Supreme Court to put the redistricting on hold. Attorneys for the civil rights groups that challenged the state’s 2021 congressional redistricting are asking the court to reject the state’s request that they pause the court-ordered redrawing of the district maps. The plaintiffs in the case said that the state of Alabama “knowingly and intentionally” defied the three-judge panel’s orders and passed a map that continued to dilute the influence of Black voters in congressional elections.

As it stands today, what maps the state will use for next year’s congressional elections are up in the air until the Supreme Court rules on Marshall’s request for a pause.

“We are now in a waiting game,” explained Rep. Hill, who is a retired circuit judge.

If the court does not order a pause in the process, then the three-judge panel is expected to consider the special master’s options in an October 3 hearing.

If the Supreme Court orders a pause in the process, then the 2024 election could proceed with the map prepared by the Legislature in July, even if the court ultimately finds against the state. The major party primaries are on March 5, with candidate qualifying beginning on October 16.

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