This case involves two related challenges by the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus and the Alabama Democratic Conference to the post-2010 State House and State Senate redistricting plans for the State of Alabama. The plaintiffs claim that the challenged redistricting plans violate the Fourteenth Amendment because they are unjustified racial gerrymanders. The plaintiffs have based their racial gerrymandering claims on the fact that Alabama decided to maintain the black population percentages in the majority-black districts at almost exactly the same level as under the previous redistricting plan. A three-judge district court ruled in Alabama’s favor, with one dissenter.
On August 20, 2014, the Lawyers’ Committee filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court on behalf of neither party The brief argues that the district court committed legal error in three major respects and that the case should be remanded with directions from the Supreme Court on how to conduct the proper legal analysis.
On March 25, 2015, the Supreme Court issued a decision that closely tracks the analysis and approach laid out in the Lawyers’ Committee’s brief: the Supreme Court vacated the three-judge decision and remanded the case to the district court for further analysis.
To read the Lawyers’ Committee’s amicus brief, please click here.
