Case Summary

The Alabama State Conference of the NAACP and four African-American voters filed a lawsuit in federal court against the State of Alabama alleging that the at-large method of electing Alabama’s appellate courts, including the Alabama Supreme Court, deprives minority voters of the chance to elect judges of their choice in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Plaintiffs sought both declaratory and injunctive relief barring Alabama from their existing method of electing state appellate judges and ordering a new method to be implemented.

In November 2018, a bench trial on the merits was held in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama on the plaintiffs' Section 2 claim. After the trial, on August 9, 2019, the Court ordered that the evidentiary record be supplemented with additional information on judicial elections in Alabama. On February 5, 2020, the court ruled in favor of the defendants, finding that Alabama's at-large method of electing appellate court judges did not violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Case Library

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama - 2:16-cv-00731