Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced last week she will be calling a special legislative session focused on redrawing the state’s congressional district maps. This announcement comes in the wake of a Supreme Court decision made last week that weakened Voting Rights Act protections of minority voters. 

Last week, the Supreme Court struck down a majority Black congressional district in Louisiana in a 6-3 ruling. The court’s conservative majority claimed the district, as it was drawn, relied too heavily on race.

“That map is an unconstitutional gerrymander,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the court’s ruling.

This ruling hollows out protections found in Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits voting practices and procedures that discriminate on the basis of race and racial minority status. In practice, this provision of the Voting Rights Act has been used in creating congressional district maps in ways that protect the voting power of minorities — such as creating “majority-minority” districts.

In the wake of the court’s decision, several states rushed to redraw their congressional maps. Florida’s legislature has already approved new maps in the wake of the decision, and Mississippi’s governor has also called for a special session focused on redistricting. 

Initially, however, Ivey had said she would not call a special session for redistricting, despite Republican lawmakers’ calls for her to do so, because the state was “not in position to have a special session at this time.” Alabama has been involved in a drawn-out redistricting legal battle since 2021, which Ivey cited as a reason to not call a special session, and was ordered by a federal court last year to maintain the state’s current district maps until 2030.

However, Ivey reversed her decision later in the week, in hopes that the current court order would be lifted under the new Supreme Court decision. Secretary of State Wes Allen has asked the Supreme Court to expedite its review of the state’s ongoing challenge to its court-ordered maps.

“By calling the Legislature into a special session, I am ensuring Alabama is prepared should the courts act quickly enough to allow Alabama’s previously drawn congressional and state senate maps to be used during this election cycle,” Ivey said in a statement.

Lawyers with the NAACP have also filed a response to the state’s request to the Supreme Court, asking the court to deny the state’s efforts to redistrict. 

Redistricting efforts will most likely affect the state’s two majority-minority districts: 

• The 7th Congressional District  — which is currently represented by Democrat Terri Sewell and comprises parts of Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and Montgomery, as well as several majority-Black counties in the Black Belt.
• The 2nd Congressional District — a district redrawn in 2023 as an opportunity district for Black voters in Mobile, Montgomery and parts of the Black Belt and currently represented by Democrat Shomari Figures.

Sewell described the Supreme Court ruling as a “death sentence for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.”

“As the representative of Alabama’s 7th District—a district whose very existence was secured through the Voting Rights Act— I know firsthand what is at stake,” Sewell said in a statement.

The push to redistrict also comes weeks before Alabama’s primary elections, set for May 19. Ivey said she would ask the legislature to consider holding special elections for districts affected by redistricting. This will likely include District 2 and District 1, which is currently represented by Republican Barry Moore.  

The special session begins Monday, May 4, at 4 p.m.

Alabama top stories in brief

Birmingham delays vote on data center ordinance

• The Birmingham City Council last week delayed a vote on an ordinance that would place regulations on data centers in the city. 
• The ordinance would change the city’s zoning code to include specific requirements data centers must meet. This includes requirements on water usage and wastewater management, where data centers can be built and power generation.
• Debate on this ordinance comes on the heels of a proposed multibillion-dollar data center project proposed for the Oxmoor area of Birmingham. However, the City Council passed a six-month moratorium on data center development within the city in March, in order to give the council more time to consider the impacts of the proposed data center. 
• Council members decided to delay the vote in order to give themselves more time to consider the proposed requirements.

ADOC, AG office reprimanded by federal judge in death penalty case

• A federal judge last week ruled the Alabama Department of Corrections and the attorney general’s office made false statements regarding the state’s nitrogen gas execution protocols.
• U.S. District Court Judge Emily Marks found that several state officials falsely claimed the state could not maintain data collected from pulse oximeters used to monitor inmates during nitrogen gas executions. 
• Officials named in the ruling include former ADOC Commissioner John Hamm, Deputy Commissioner Charles Williams; Holman Correctional Warden Terry Raybon and Brenton L. Thompson of the attorney general’s office.
• The state said in March that they do not maintain data from pulse oximeter readings during nitrogen gas executions, nor that they could maintain records of this data due to the equipment being used. These claims came in the civil lawsuit of death row inmate, Jeffery Lee — who is set to be executed this June.
• Marks’s ruling finds that the state was aware the pulse oximeters could record data as early as February.

AG candidate gets massive out-of-state contribution as ‘dark money’ claims persist

• Katherine Robertson, a candidate running for state attorney general, recently received a $200,000 donation from Frontline Leaders Action Inc., an organization based out of Virginia.
• Frontline Leaders Action Inc. is a nonprofit associated with the super PAC the Frontline Victory Fund. Frontline Leaders Action Inc. previously donated $300,000 to Roberson’s campaign in January.
• Much of Robertson’s campaign contributions have come from outside of the state. This has included a $1.1 million contribution from Tennessee-based nonprofit, First Principles Action Inc. 
• Robertson’s campaign has been accused by her opponents of accepting dark money contributions from out-of-state entities that do not have to report their donors to Alabama’s secretary of state.

University of Montevallo emerges from $8 million budget deficit

• The University of Montevallo has ended its $8 million budget deficit after the school’s board of trustees cut several academic and athletic programs.
• The public liberal arts college’s board of trustees last week voted to end the university’s tennis and swimming programs as a way to reduce costs.
• The two athletic programs brought a combined 44 students to the university, but the swim program was running at a $30,000 annual deficit.
• These latest program cuts follow previous decisions to increase tuition, lay off staff and cut several academic programs — including the state’s only bachelor’s program in Deaf and hard of hearing education. The board of trustees also voted to combine the school’s popular theater and music departments as a way to reduce about $100,000 in administrative costs.

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