Alabama files emergency appeal with Supreme Court in redistricting case

Alabama has filed an emergency appeal in its congressional map case, a week after a three-judge panel struck down on the matter. 

In a filing submitted Monday, Alabama state officials asked the Supreme Court to freeze the lower court’s ruling by Oct. 1. State officials also noted that the ruling can be put on hold as late as Oct. 3, when a lower court’s proceedings are scheduled to select court-drawn alternatives of the congressional map.

The appeal was filed hours after a three-judge panel denied the state’s request to pause their decision on its congressional map.

The three-judge panel said in its ruling that the new map doesn’t comply with the Supreme Court’s directive, resulting in a court-appointed official instead drawing the redistricting lines for the 2024 cycle. 

The judges also wrote that Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) will “likely lose on appeal” in the case, after Marshall signaled that the state will appeal the case back to the Supreme Court. 

“The Secretary has lost three times already, and one of those losses occurred on appeal,” the judges wrote in their ruling. “We have twice enjoined a plan that includes only one majority-Black or Black-opportunity district on the grounds that it likely dilutes the votes of Black Alabamians in violation of Section Two of the Voting Rights Act.”

The state filed a new map after the Supreme Court blocked the initial map in June, saying in its ruling that the map likely violates the Voting Rights Act by reducing the power of Black voters. 

The original map — like the revised map — included only one majority-Black district out of the state’s seven total districts, despite 27 percent of the state’s population being Black.