Case Summary

On June 13, 2018, Alabama voters filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that the 2011 Alabama congressional map violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Plaintiffs argued that the map dilutes African-Americans' voting strength in four different congressional districts, packing them in one and cracking them in the other three. Plaintiffs sought a declaratory judgement that the current congressional map violates Section 2 of the VRA and injunctive relief preventing its use in the 2020 election. Plaintiffs further requested that the court order a new map containing two majority-minority districts be drawn in the congressional maps place.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama denied injunctive relief for the 2020 election but allowed plaintiffs to pursue their request for declaratory relief on the Section 2 issue.

A trial on the merits was held on November 4th through November 8th, 2019. After finding that the court would be unable to fashion a remedy in light of the looming 2020 census results, the case was dismissed as moot by the District Court for lack of jurisdiction on March 17, 2020.

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U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama - 2:18-cv-00907

Chestnut v. Merrill
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