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On Monday the Legal Defense Fund, lead counsel in the Allen v. Milligan court case, sent a letter to the Alabama Legislative Committee on Reapportionment imploring them to adopt the VRA Plaintiffs’ Remedial Plan to redraw Alabama’s congressional map.
On June 8, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Allen v. Milligan that Alabama’s current congressional map violated the Voting Rights Act because it diluted Black voting power and required Alabama to redraw its congressional map.
The new map will have to include at least two districts where Black voters comprise a voting age majority.
In the letter the LDF states that the VRA Plan will best comply with the concerns of the Supreme Court and the federal district court’s initial injunction.
“Because the Alabama Legislature’s enactment of this plan would likely resolve the pending lawsuit, we urge the Committee to give careful consideration to our VRA Plan.”
The LDF also warned that any plan that does not include two Black majority districts will “almost certainly will not conform to the district court’s order.”
Along with two majority Black district the VRA Plan will keep the eighteen “core” Black Belt counties together. The letter says the “core retention” of the plan will be over 80 percent and will limit the number of county splits.
The plan was made jointly by the Milligan plaintiffs and plaintiffs from the Allen v. Caster case.
The Milligan plaintiffs include Evan Milligan, Shalela Dowdy, Letetia Jackson, Khadidah Stone, Greater Birmingham Ministries, and the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP.
The Caster plaintiffs include Marcus Caster, Lakeisha Chestnut, Bobby L. Dubose, Benjamin Jones, Rodney A. Love, Manasseh Powell, Ronald Smith, and Wendell Thomas.
The reapportionment committee is set to hold public hearings and meetings today which can be viewed online here at 1:30 p.m.
The letter and map can be viewed here.
