Alabama AG Files Supreme Court Challenge to Overturn Milligan Redistricting Ruling

Alabama's top law enforcement officer filed a Supreme Court challenge to overturn a prior ruling that limited Republicans in decennial redistricting. The move follows a recent Louisiana case that raised questions about the court's earlier decision.

Louisiana's Callais ruling struck down the state's map, including districts centered on New Orleans and a narrow majority-minority corridor from Baton Rouge. Alabama leaders said the decision conflicts with or calls into question Supreme Court precedent affecting their state by requiring racial factors to be considered when drawing congressional districts.

"Now they have a framework for Alabama to directly defend what the legislature did both in 2021 and 2023," Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said. He told Fox News Digital he was thrilled to see where the court came down on Callais at the end of April.

"And that is, drawing maps based on historical redistricting principles that now I think Callais makes clear were constitutional exercises of that authority," Marshall said. He highlighted the Supreme Court's analysis that race should not predominate when drawing congressional districts.

Unlike Louisiana, which received direct relief through that decision, Alabama must be removed from the injunction against its prior map by a three-judge panel. That would allow a return to the challenged map or give the legislature authority to draw a new one.

A previous Supreme Court ruling, Allen v. Milligan, invalidated Alabama's prior redistricting effort. Critics said the decision wrongly weighted racial factors in creating a second Democratic-favored district in the heavily Republican state.

If Alabama escapes Milligan, it could affect Democrats' attempts to gain seats in the slim GOP-majority U.S. House this fall. Montgomery's so-called Livingston map, originally struck down in the 2023 case, would see new life.

Marshall, who is running to succeed retiring Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., this fall, said urgency is important with the May 19 primary approaching. "Because the lower court’s injunction cannot stand in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, we have asked the court to lift the injunction. Alabama deserves the right to use its own maps, just like every other state."

The attorney general said he is working separately from state lawmakers, who are in special session through Friday to address the legislative side. His office is singularly focused on getting legal relief from the Supreme Court.

Marshall said the Alabama of the 2020s is not the Alabama of the 1960s and that there are few, if any, barriers to minority suffrage in the state. "You saw some of that sentiment from Justice Kavanaugh in a concurrence in the Milligan case that Alabama had there a few years ago, saying there's a point in time in which we have to acknowledge that circumstances have changed," he said.

The prior case forced Alabama to draw a second district where Black voters have a meaningful opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.

For Democratic critics like New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who visited Alabama for a counter-redistricting forum in Birmingham with Mayor Randall Woodfin and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Doug Jones, Marshall suggested they address their own states. "[They’re] arguing for proportional representation, which is basically what they are saying, they make that same argument in Maine, in Rhode Island, in New Hampshire — where you don't see a single congressional member there from the Republican Party."

New England states have large blocs of unaffiliated or independent voters. Maine is considered the most moderate, with an estimated Republican bloc of about 30 percent. Vermont’s registration system resulted in about the same percentage of vote share going to President Donald Trump in 2024.

Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts all have between 10 percent and 40 percent Republican vote share, presuming a bloc of the unaffiliated group votes at times for Republican candidates. Those states have more than 40 percent of their people registered unaffiliated or similar.

Fox News Digital reached out to Booker earlier this week on similar criticism but did not receive a response.

Marshall said his work is not necessarily in concert with the legislature, but the two are on similar tracks. "While we'll obviously watch what the legislature is doing, our job is to secure the relief from the 2023 redistricting injunction as quickly as possible."

"And the other thing, not only are we working on the state congressional map, but it's also, we have a state Senate district map likewise that was subject to redrawing based upon a Voting Rights Act Section 2 challenge," he said.

His office is also involved in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, to challenge the state’s senatorial map while seeking Supreme Court review on the congressional front.

Marshall spoke to Fox News Digital before the Supreme Court of Virginia struck down the Democratic-led redistricting map there. He called Richmond’s move clearly done for hyper-political reasons that kept none of the traditional principles in mind.

Alabama’s redistricting efforts have aimed to follow the letter and spirit of the law. The attorney general said he hopes to have a real chance of receiving favorable corrective action from the nation’s highest court and remedying a fight the state previously lost.