Judges reject preclearance request for Alabama congressional plans and keep map in place

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Federal judges on Thursday ordered Alabama to continue using a court-selected congressional map for the rest of the decade, but they declined to put the state back under the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act.

The order secures the current map, which created a second district where Black voters are the majority or close to it, for the next several elections. But the order leaves open what the districts will look like after 2030, when the Republican-controlled Alabama Legislature can again draw a map free from court oversight.

The three-judge panel ordered the secretary of state to continue using the current congressional map, which was selected by the court last year, “until Alabama enacts a new congressional districting plan based on 2030 Census data” and said they will retain jurisdiction over the case until then. Lawmakers have said they did not intend to redraw Alabama’s congressional map before the 2030 Census.

The judges rejected a request from plaintiffs to “bail in” Alabama under the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act and submit the next-state-drawn congressional map for review before it is used. The judges wrote that they “discern no compelling reason to tread into such intrusive waters.”

“And we will not, in an unrestrained attempt to resolve any hypothetical issue that may arise far down the road, assign to our Court the exceedingly intrusive task of supervising Alabama’s congressional elections for the next fifteen years,” the judges wrote.

The Alabama attorney general’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice had both opposed the request.

“We are pleased the Court accepted our arguments and rejected the plaintiffs’ far-reaching request,” a spokesman for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office wrote in a statement.

Deuel Ross, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, had argued during a July hearing that preclearance was needed to ensure the state doesn’t “backslide.”

Ross said Friday that even though the court rejected preclearance, his clients are pleased the court ordered Alabama to continue using the special master map through 2030.

“This independently-drawn map respects Alabama’s many communities of interest, including the Black Belt, and ensures that Black voters will have a fair opportunity to elect congressional candidates of their choice for the rest of the decade,” Ross said.

“This is a hard-fought win for our clients, for all Alabamians, and for democracy itself,” Ross said.

The Voting Rights Act for decades required states with a history of discrimination — including Alabama — to get federal approval before changing the way they hold elections. But the requirement of preclearance effectively went away in 2013 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the provision determining which states are covered was outdated and unconstitutional.