The plaintiffs in Allen v. Milligan filed a formal objection on July 28 with United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama regarding the state’s revised congressional district boundaries. The plaintiffs requested that the court prohibit the state from using the new boundaries and appoint a special master to draw a new congressional map that the state would use for the remainder of the decade.
The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled 5-4 in Allen v. Milligan that the plaintiffs showed a reasonable likelihood of success concerning their claim that Alabama’s 2021 redistricting map (HB1) violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. SCOTUS’ decision affirmed the Northern District’s earlier decision, and SCOTUS remanded the case back to the district court for further proceedings.
Alabama enacted revised congressional district boundaries on July 21 after the legislature approved them and Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed the redrawn maps into law. The Senate approved the new boundaries 24-6, and the state House passed them 76-26. The Alabama Reflector’s Alander Rocha and Jemma Stephenson wrote that the congressional map the state enacted in 2023 “would lower the percentage of Alabama’s current majority-Black district and create a district in southeast Alabama that would be nearly 40% Black.”
