Reaction pours in after Gov. Ivey calls special session on Alabama redistricting
Alabama will become the latest state to jump into the mid-decade redistricting race as Gov. Kay Ivey calls legislators back to Montgomery for a special session.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Alabama will become the latest state to jump into the mid-decade redistricting race as Gov. Kay Ivey calls legislators back to Montgomery for a special session.
The move comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, struck down Louisiana’s second majority Black congressional district, dealing a significant blow to enforcement of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Ivey initially pushed back on the idea of Alabama redistricting its map, saying that she was “encouraged” but that “Alabama is currently under a court order prohibiting the use of new congressional districts until after the 2030 census.”
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen filed emergency motions Thursday afternoon seeking to lift injunctions on three Alabama redistricting cases.
“I think we have an opportunity to be able to defend our maps in a way that’s consistent with the principles in which we should be able to draw maps across the country,” said Attorney General Marshall. “For years, the courts have conflated an examination what I would describe as black and white instead of red and blue.”
On Friday, Ivey reversed course on her previous statementsand called a special session of the Alabama Legislature in order to redraw the state’s congressional districts in a way that would benefit the state’s Republican majority, if the court order is lifted.
Allen tells WSFA 12 News that Alabama’s May 19 primary election is still ongoing as planned.
The GOP currently holds five of the state’s seven congressional seats, down one following the court ordered creation of a second majority-Black district. Last August, a three-judge panel in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ruled that Alabama must continue to use the court-ordered congressional map.
Before the Milligan v. Allen ruling and the court-drawn map, Alabama Republicans held six of the state’s seven congressional district seats for decades
People in opposition of the Louisiana v. Callais decision have said they believe Alabama’s Black population of roughly 25 percent should translate to at least two seats in Congress representing minority communities.
Ivey’s special session will start on Monday, and she says she wants to see it “completed within five days.”
“During this special session, I have called on the Legislature to address legislation to provide for a special primary election for electing members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Alabama State Senate in districts whose boundary lines are altered by court action,” Ivey said.
The governor’s full statement reads:
The governor’s full proclamation states:
Gov. Kay Ivey's proclamation calling a special session of the Alabama Legislature to consider redrawing of the state's congressional districts.(Source: Alabama Governor's Press Office)
REACTION
ALABAMA ATTORNEY GENERAL STEVE MARSHALL
“While [Louisiana v. Callais] is very helpful for us in being able to move forward in the arguments defending Alabama’s prior maps, we still need to be able to seek relief either from the supreme court or three-judge panel allowing us to be able to proceed,” AG Steve Marshall tells WSFA 12 News.
U.S. REP. SHOMARI FIGURES
WSFA 12 News has also reached out to the offices of Rep. Shomari Figures, District 2, and Terri Sewell, District 7, Alabama’s two Democratic members of Congress, for reaction.
Figures has responded saying:
U.S. REP. TERRI SEWELL
Sewell has responded saying:
ALABAMA REPUBLICAN PARTY
The Alabama GOP is praising the governor’s decision saying:
STATE REP. JUANDALYNN GIVAN
Birmingham state Rep. Juandalynn Givan called the latest developments a “terrible day for the State of Alabama,” and urged Republicans to “take a long, hard look before they move forward.”
MOBILE NAACP PRESIDENT
“I think it is an atrocity and I think that the Supreme Court has betrayed Black voters, betrayed America and betrayed our democracy,” Robert Clopton Sr., the president of the Mobile NAACP, tells WSFA 12 News.
Clopton said the decision from the Supreme Court is reversing decades of civil rights advancements.
“We will definitely fight back at the ballot box because we know that our strongest defense and our most powerful response is turning out voters and electing leaders who will protect our rights,” he said.
ALABAMA HOUSE SPEAKER, SENATE PRO TEM - JOINT STATEMENT
ACLU OF ALABAMA
ALABAMA ARISE
LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF ALABAMA
“The League of Women Voters of Alabama strongly opposes Governor Ivey’s call for a special legislative session just 18 days before voters head to the polls. Our multiracial democracy depends on maps that do not dilute the political power of Black Alabamians. Let’s be clear, the US Supreme Court did not overrule our congressional map. Yet the legislature is now seeking to redraw it to eliminate Black representation in a state where Black residents make up more than a quarter of the population. This is an embarrassment and exactly what the League predicted would happen post-Callais when governments no longer fear litigation to prevent racism in redistricting. Alabama must do better for Black residents. Our democracy depends on it.”
