LDF and Co-Counsel Urge U.S. Supreme Court to Reject Appeal in Alabama Redistricting Case

Read a PDF of our statement here.

The Legal Defense Fund (LDF), alongside our co-counsel, on Friday filed a motion to dismiss or affirm with the U.S. Supreme Court, urging the justices to reject an appeal in the Alabama redistricting case Milligan v. Allen. In June, the Supreme Court granted a stay of a district court's previous ruling that Alabama's 2023 congressional voting map was racially discriminatory, allowing the 2023 map to go into place for this year's elections. Because the 2023 map has already been used in the ongoing 2026 elections, LDF argued, the appeal of the lower court's ruling is moot and the Court should therefore dismiss Alabama's appeal.

Alternatively, the co-counsel organizations argued that the Supreme Court should affirm the district court's detailed findings that Alabama's map is the product of intentional racial discrimination in violation of the Constitution and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

In the previous 2024 elections, Alabama used a court-ordered, race-neutral map that contained two districts where Black voters had the opportunity to elect candidates of choice, resulting in two Black people simultaneously representing Alabama in Congress for the first time in history. The discriminatory 2023 map only has one opportunity district for Black voters, who make up over a quarter of the state's population.

If the appeal is dismissed, the case will likely return to the district court for a re-trial in 2027.

"Alabama's appeal is a disingenuous effort to further restrict Black political power in Alabama, which has long been their ultimate aim," said the Milligan co-counsel in a joint statement. "Alabama elections have been underway for months now. Elevating this case to the Supreme Court cannot change that. There is no further relief the state could seek now that its 2023 map is in place. The Court should dismiss this fruitless appeal."

The plaintiffs in the Milligan case are Evan Milligan, Khadidah Stone, Letetia Jackson, Shalela Dowdy, Greater Birmingham Ministries, and the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, who are represented by the Legal Defense Fund, American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Alabama, Hogan Lovells LLP, and Wiggins, Childs, Pantazis, Fisher & Goldfarb.

To learn more about the Milligan v. Allencase, visit here.

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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF)is the nation's first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF's archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.