Alabama asked the U.S. Supreme Court on May 8 to clear the way for the state to redraw its congressional election map to comply with the court’s landmark ruling limiting the use of race in redistricting.
The May 19 primary will still take place, Ivey said in a statement, but if the injunctions are lifted in Alabama’s redistricting case, she may call for a special election for certain state senate and congressional districts where boundary lines would change as a result of a reversion to older district maps.
“With this special session successfully behind us, Alabama now stands ready to quickly act, should the courts issue favorable rulings in our ongoing redistricting cases,” Ivey said. “I thank the Legislature for answering my call to address the issue in fast order.”
Federal courts had been incorrectly applying the Supreme Court precedents on the federal Voting Rights Act’s Section 2 non-discrimination provisions “in a way that forces States to engage in the very race-based discrimination that the Constitution forbids,” the high court said.
The Supreme Court struck down a court-ordered second black-majority district in Louisiana, finding its creation relied too heavily on race.
The court narrowly found that the map drafted by Alabama Republicans violated the provisions of the Voting Rights Act, which requires that states not racially gerrymander districts. Alabama had asked the Supreme Court to reinterpret Section 2, arguing the Constitution required it, but at that time, it declined to do so.
Alabama and several other GOP-led states are currently in the process of redistricting in light of the Callais ruling in the hope that Republicans will retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the November elections.
The ruling raises the bar for minority voters to contest electoral maps as racially discriminatory in the absence of direct evidence of discriminatory intent.
Alabama argues that its congressional map needed to be redrawn to conform to the Callais decision.
The district court-ordered map “segregated more than a million Alabamians into different districts because of their race,” and cannot be reconciled with Callais, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall wrote in the filing.
“Alabama’s case mirrors Louisiana’s, and they should end the same way: with this year’s elections run with districts based on lawful policy goals, not race,” he wrote.
“After [previously] enacting a racial gerrymander, Louisiana is now free to hold elections under a lawful map consistent with its policy goals.”
Because the Supreme Court is not scheduled to issue orders until May 18, which is the day before the May 19 primary, Alabama asked the court to stay the district court order by 10 a.m. on May 14 “if the Court is unable to expedite consideration of these cases in light of Callais.”
Justice Clarence Thomas directed the lead respondent, Marcus Caster, who was a Democratic candidate for the Alabama House of Representatives in 2022, to respond to the application by 5 p.m. on May 11.
The Epoch Times reached out for comment to Caster’s attorney, Abha Khanna of Elias Law Group in Seattle, Washington. No reply was received by publication time.