On Tuesday, the three-judge panel hearing the Alabama Congressional redistricting case listened to arguments for and against the three maps prepared by the special master, Richard Allen.
The court held an 80-minute hearing at the federal courthouse in Birmingham on Tuesday. The three-judge panel includes U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus, federal District Judge Anna Manasco, and federal District Judge Terry Moorer.
Plaintiffs tended to prefer map 1, which divides Houston County and includes the City of Dothan into Congressional District 2. The Alabama Attorney General’s office has objected to this entire process and has vowed to defend the July 2023 redistricting map prepared by the state Legislature.
The court previously rejected a motion by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall to stay the proceeding while the State appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court has also rejected Marshall’s request for a stay.
Incumbents Republican Congressmen Jerry Carl and Barry Moore both now live in the First Congressional District. All three maps divide Mobile County.
In June, the three-judge panel ordered the Legislature to pass a new congressional redistricting map to include two majority-minority districts “or something close to it.”
The Legislature refused and instead defied the court’s authority by passing their own map that kept White majorities in six of Alabama’s seven congressional districts. In August, the three-judge panel rejected the Legislature’s plan as having violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The court rejected the state’s map and appointed Allen to draw new maps.
The federal courts have already ruled that the state’s 2021 congressional rezoning likely violated section two of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Secretary of State Wes Allen has told the courts that the state needs to know which map is chosen due to the quickly approaching 2024 election cycle. Democratic candidate qualifying has already opened, and Republican candidate qualifying opens on October 16.
The major party primaries will both be held on March 5.
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