Judge orders new Alabama Senate map after ruling found racial gerrymandering

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered Alabama to use a new state Senate map in upcoming legislative elections after ruling that districts drawn by lawmakers illegally diluted the voting power of Black residents in the state’s capital city.

U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco, appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, issued the ruling Monday putting a new court-selected map in place for the 2026 and 2030 elections. Manasco ruled in August that the state had violated the Voting Rights Act by “packing” Black voters into Montgomery’s Senate District 26 to limit their influence elsewhere. Manasco selected one of three proposed plans drawn by a court-appointed expert.

“The Court orders the use of a remedial map that was prepared race-blind and affords Black voters in the Montgomery area an equal opportunity, but certainly not a guarantee, to elect Senators of their choice,” Manasco wrote.

The order came from a 2021 lawsuit that argued the Alabama Senate district lines diluted the voting strength of Black citizens in Montgomery. The lawsuit maintained that in Montgomery, Black voters were unnecessarily packed into a single district, preventing them from influencing elections elsewhere, while white voters in the majority-Black city of Montgomery were “surgically” extracted into a neighboring district.

The selected map adjusts two Montgomery-area districts — District 26, now represented by Democratic Sen. Kirk Hatcher, and District 25, now represented by Republican Sen. Will Barfoot. Manasco said the remedial plan “unpacks District 26 by moving some Black voters from District 26 into the adjacent District 25.”

Court-appointed special master Richard Allen had cautioned in an earlier court filing that the plan only “weakly remedies” the Voting Rights Act violation. Manasco wrote the plan does enough to fix the violation while leaving most voters and district lines untouched.

The civil rights groups that had filed the lawsuit that led to the redistricting order had objected to the selected plan. Lawyers for plaintiffs said the plan creates an opportunity district in Senate District 25 “at the expense of the existing opportunity in SD26.”

“Although in Plan 3 Black-preferred candidates win around 89% of the time in SD25, such candidates win less than 50% of the time in SD26,” lawyers for plaintiffs wrote in an Oct. 31 court filing. They added that the analysis of past elections showed that Black candidates “almost never win in SD26.”

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen had also objected to the selected plan.

The ruling will not change the partisan power balance in the Alabama Senate, where Republicans hold 27 of the 35 seats.

Manasco had given Alabama lawmakers an opportunity to draw a new map, but Gov. Kay Ivey declined to call lawmakers into special session.