Updates on a Federal Court Rejection of a Stay for Alabama’s Congressional Maps, and an Upcoming SCOTUS Case on South Carolina’s Maps

Brian Beihl

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 13, 2023

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

We have two updates on racial gerrymandering cases today, with another setback to the Alabama legislature’s defiant Congressional maps, and another important case coming up in South Carolina.

We reported recently on the federal district court’s rejection of the Alabama legislature’s revised maps after the Milligan decision for not having provided a second majority minority Black Congressional district. The Alabama Secretary of State asked the federal court for a stay while it appeals the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, but Monday the U.S. District Court rejected the stay request, noting in one section,  “A stay is not in Alabama’s public interest.”  One plaintiff  group has already submitted a map with two majority-minority Black districts to the court’s special master. 

Democracy Docket reports that briefs have been filed for an October 11th U.S. Supreme Court case contesting South Carolina’s Congressional maps, struck down by a lower court as racial gerrymandering.  The state’s legislature argues that it was instead political gerrymandering, which the U.S. Supreme Court said in 2019 was a state matter.  Should the U.S. Supreme Court agree with the legislature, it could unleash more racial gerrymandering, cloaked as partisan gerrymandering.  

Gerrymandering cases in New York, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana are also pending and we’ll update you shortly.   

We’ll have links to this tangled web of gerrymandering cases and the groups taking action at  AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Democracy Docket – Alabama Congressional Redistricting Challenge (SCOTUS)
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA SOUTHERN DIVISION via Democracy Docket – Order Denying Stay
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA SOUTHERN DIVISION via Democracy Docket –  SINGLETON PLAINTIFFS’ PROPOSED REMEDIAL PLAN for the Special Master with Two Majority Minority Districts
American Redistricting Project – South Carolina’s Alexander v. S.C. State Conf. of the NAACP
U.S. Supreme Court via Democracy Docket – Appeal of Alexander v. S.C. S.C. State Conf. of the NAACP

Groups Taking Action:
Alabama:  NAACP Legal Defense Fund, ACLU, Greater Birmingham Ministries
South Carolina:  South Carolina Conference of the NAACP, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, The American Redistricting Project, ACLU

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