Last week, the court-appointed special master released three congressional redistricting maps for the three-federal judge panel to consider in a hearing on Tuesday. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s (R) emergency appeal asking the court to stay the lower court’s effort to impose one of those three maps on the state. One of those maps will be Alabama’s new districts, certainly for the 2024 election and possibly through the 2030 election.
Congressman Robert Aderholt (R-AL04) shared his thoughts in a statement after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the State of Alabama’s appeal and the release of three proposed remedial congressional maps drawn by a court-ordered special master.
“As I have said previously, the ruling seemed to be a case where the Court was speaking out of both sides of its mouth,” Aderholt said. “They have said you can’t use race to draw district lines, but then said you must use race to draw district lines. Regardless, this seems to be the reality we are facing.”
The redistricting means that Aderholt’s district changes for the next term. These same changes were made by the Alabama Legislature in July. The three-judge panel rejected that map.
“While I’m sorry that Etowah and Lawrence counties are not technically in the 4th Congressional District, my door is always open to the people of both counties,” Aderholt said. “I welcome Blount County back into the Fourth District and welcome the western portion of Lauderdale as a new part of the Fourth Congressional District.”
Steve Marshall expressed his frustration with the court’s ruling.
“There should be nothing more offensive to the people of our great state than to be sidelined in 2023 by a view of Alabama that is stuck in 1963,” AG Marshall said on Twitter. “This racial agenda is pressed by left-wing activists, not just in Alabama, but in any Republican state where it might advantage Democrats. If this brazen and divisive commandeering is permitted without even a whisper of concern from other quarters, America’s congressional elections as we know them will never be the same. We will be grouped together by race alone, with counties and cities split down the middle—the same way that we were so wrongfully segregated once before.”
Marshall has vowed to continue to appeal and argue for the validity of the map the legislature prepared in a special session in July.
Marshall said his office “will continue our fight to defend the 2023 map, which was enacted by the people’s representatives, and which complies with both the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution’s promise that governments should be colorblind.”
“We will comply with the district court’s preliminary injunction order while building our case for the 2023 map, which has yet to receive a full hearing,” he said. “We are confident that the Voting Rights Act does not require, and the Constitution does not allow, ‘separate but equal’ congressional districts.”
The 2024 election cycle began on Friday with the start of Democratic Party qualifying. Republican qualifying will begin on October 16. The major party primaries, including the presidential primary, will begin on March 5.
Despite the changes to the district, Aderholt is expected to qualify to run for another term. He is the longest-serving member of the Alabama congressional delegation.
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