Alabama Republicans this week rejected calls to draw a second majority-black congressional district, instead creating maps that Democrats and advocates say completely ignore a recent US Supreme Court ruling.
A federal court ordered the state to redraw its congressional map last year to include two districts where black voters make up voting-age majorities, “or something close to that.” The Supreme Court upheld the ruling this year, prompting the Legislature to call a special session to redraw the map this week.
But on Friday, the Republican-controlled Legislature is set to pass a map with just one majority black seat. They are currently considering two drafts: the House map includes a second district that is 42% black, while the Senate map includes a district that is 38% black. Lawmakers are expected to meet in conference committee Friday to select one of those maps or a compromise.
Neither would give black voters a real shot at winning congressional seats, Democrats and advocates said in interviews and floor discussions.
“It’s an opportunity to fail,” state Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, said of the Senate plan.
District lines are being closely watched by many in Washington, where redistricting battles unfolding in courts in Alabama, New York, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and other states could decide control of Congress.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, and much of the rest of Alabama’s congressional delegation have reached out to Republican lawmakers, according to Republican state House Speaker Nathan Ledbetter.
Alluding to Tuberville’s past as football coach at Auburn University, spokesman Steven Stafford said in an email: “The coach just wants the maps to be fair and all Alabamans to be well represented. He is confident that Alabama state legislators will get it right.”
McCarthy has reached out to the plan’s sponsors and is concerned about maintaining his House majority, Ledbetter said, while Tuberville called Thursday morning and said he was surprised the Supreme Court had ruled against the state, given the court’s conservative leaning.
“I was a little surprised that we were in the situation,” Ledbetter said. “There are a lot of eyes on Alabama.”
McCarthy confirmed to NBC News that he spoke with “some” Alabama lawmakers.
“I would like to know where they are going to go and if they are in the process of happening,” he said. “I know the Democrats are trying very hard to redraw New York… I think people should be very fair in this process so they can see what’s going on. I like to know what’s going to happen.”
‘Flip off’ of the Supreme Court
Republicans have insisted that the maps would give black voters the opportunity to elect the representatives of their choice as required by the courts, but Democrats, voting rights experts and the groups that sued for the original maps disagree.
State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, a Democrat from Birmingham, expressed her dismay that Republican lawmakers would “blatantly mock the United States Supreme Court” with the map being debated this week.
Kareem Clayton, an Alabama native who is a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, said his team looked at 15 recent elections to see how proposed redistricting lines would perform.
They found that the candidate preferred by black voters would win four times out of 15 under the House plan, while black voters could choose their preferred candidate only once under the Senate plan. And that victory was a narrow one, stemming from a notable upset: the historic upset of former Sen. Doug Jones by Roy Moore, a Republican accused of sexual misconduct with teens.
“The direct line in both plans is obviously that they are prioritizing keeping the Gulf Coast together, which the Supreme Court said was not more important than providing a serious and effective opportunity for African-American voters,” he said.
Election and civil rights groups that challenged the map as a violation of the Voting Rights Act have also vowed to fight the new one.
The plaintiffs can file objections in the coming weeks under the current court order, and federal judges will consider them at a hearing on Aug. 14. The court may decide to hire an outside expert to redraw the maps if he agrees that the map is another racial manipulation.
When the Legislature advanced two maps without a second majority-black district, the plaintiffs expressed their outrage and shock.
Marina Jenkins, executive director of the National Redistricting Foundation, one of the groups that supported some of the plaintiffs in the Allen v. Milligan criticized the maps in a statement.
“Alabama Republicans are intentionally drawing political retention maps at the expense of black Alabamaians, in defiance of the Alabama Supreme Court and district court. It is a continuation of the state’s long and sordid history of disenfranchising black voters,” he said, vowing to challenge the maps in court.
NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorney Deuel Ross, who argued the case before the Supreme Court, said the plaintiffs were disappointed with Alabama’s responses to the court orders.
“This is exactly why the Voting Rights Act was first created – this kind of stubbornness from the states,” he said in an interview. “Even when a court says it’s violating federal law or the Constitution, it’s still not doing the right thing. It’s troubling, but it’s part of a troubling story that’s been around the United States and Alabama for a long time.”
