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Alabama's top lawmaker filed a Supreme Court challenge aimed at overturning an earlier ruling by Republicans to limit the age limit, after a recent case in Louisiana raised questions about how the court ruled there.
Louisiana's “Callais” decision hit the bottom of the country's map, including districts centered on New Orleans and a narrow majority-minority corridor from Baton Rouge. Alabama leaders said the decision contradicts or calls into question a Supreme Court precedent that affects 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 in 2021 and 2023,” said Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, telling Fox News Digital that he was “very happy” to see where the court came down in “Callais” at the end of April.
“That is, drawing maps based on the historical principles of redistricting now that I think Callais makes it clear that it was the constitutional duties of that authority,” said Marshall, highlighting the analysis of SCOTUS that race should not be more when drawing congressional districts.
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“And unlike Louisiana, which was able to get relief directly from that decision, it now has to be removed from this law. [against Alabama’s prior map] it's a three-judge panel to return the challenged map or give the legislature the authority to draw a new map.”
A previous Supreme Court decision, Allen v. Milligan, used Alabama's previous redistricting effort, when critics said the decision unfairly weighted racial factors in creating what became the Democratic Party's second favorite district in the ruby red district.
If Alabama is able to get out from under Milligan, it could have a national impact on the efforts of the Democrats to get enough seats in the small US House with a GOP majority this fall, as the Montgomery map called the Livingston map, initially defeated in the case of 2023, will see a new life.
Marshall, who also wants to succeed Sen. Rep. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., this fall, said it's important to get ahead of the court as the May 19 primary approaches.
“Because the lower court's order cannot stand up to the Supreme Court's decision, we asked the court to strike down the law. Alabama deserves the right to use its maps, just like every other state.”
The AG said he is working separately from state attorneys general, who are in special session until Friday to address the legal side of the fight, and that his office is “very focused” on getting legal relief from the Supreme Court.
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He also said that, in terms of race, the Alabama of the 2020s is not the Alabama of the 1960s and that there are few, if any, barriers to minority success in the Yellowhammer State.
“You saw some of these sentiments from Justice Kavanaugh at the same time [Milligan] The case that Alabama has had there in the last few years, says there is a time when we have to admit that conditions have changed,” he said, as the previous case forced Alabama to draw a second district where black voters had a reasonable chance of electing a candidate.
Hendrick Motorsports drivers Chase Elliott and William Byron lead the field at the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama — one of the state's premier attractions. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
For critics of the Democratic Alliance as Sen. Cory Booker, who went down to Alabama to retreat – as he did in the opposition forum in Birmingham with the Mayor of the city Randall Woodfin and the Democratic Gubernatorial councilor Doug Jones – Marshall suggested that they get their house to go north.
“[They’re] arguing for equal representation, which is what they're saying, they're making that same argument in Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire — where you don't see a single member of congress there from the Republican Party.”
To emphasize that the states of New England have large blocs of “illegal” or independent voters, gerrymander critics often point to the district because those Republicans do not actually have a voice in Washington.
Maine is considered the most conservative of the states, with a Republican bloc of about 30%, while Vermont's unclear registration system resulted in about the same percentage of the vote share going to President Donald Trump in 2024.
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Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts all have a share of the Republican vote between 10% and 40%, considered a pool of the party's “unaffiliated” votes at times in Republican elections. Those states have more than 40% of their population registered without or similar.
Fox News Digital reached out to Booker earlier this week with similar criticism but did not receive a response.
Marshall said his work is not exactly aligned with the legislature, but the two are on the same path.
“Although it is clear that we will watch what the Legislature does, our job is to get relief from the government [2023 redistricting] punishment as soon as possible.”
“And one more thing, we're not just working on the federal map of the state, but also, we have the state Senate district. [map] likewise which was subject to redraw based on a [Voting Rights Act] The challenge of Phase 2,” he said.
Steve Marshall, Alabama attorney general, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Ketanji Brown Jackson. (Al Drago/Getty Images)
His office is also participating in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals based in New Orleans to challenge the state senate map while seeking Supreme Court review of the congressional case.
When Marshall spoke to Fox News Digital before the Virginia Supreme Court overturned the Democratic-led map there, he called Richmond's move “obvious. [done] for political reasons that did not keep a single traditional goal in mind.”
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Alabama's redistricting efforts aim to follow the letter and spirit of the law, and the attorney general said he hopes he'll have a real chance to get disciplinary action from the nation's highest court and fix a battle the Yellowhammer State previously lost.
Secretary of State Wes Allen has indicated that the May 19 primary will go ahead as expected, meaning Marshall's proposals may come in time to give Republicans another growing chance in a statewide electoral district.
