Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama

In these two cases, the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, various elected black officials, and others challenge the redistricting plans for the Alabama House and Senate. Specifically, they challenge each majority-black House and Senate District in addition to Senate Districts 7,11 and 22. Despite the multiplicity of claims and responses in this litigation, in my view the two cases are actually quite simple. As explained below, the drafters of these plans labored under the false belief that § 5 of the Voting Rights Act (“VRA”), 42 *1313U.S.C. § 1973c, required them to adopt for each majority-black…