The decision by Alabama Republican legislators to seemingly defy a Supreme Court directive to redraw congressional voting maps with a second majority-Black district was part of a larger strategy intended to force the high court to rehear the entire case and strike down Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act altogether, according to numerous sources familiar with the plan.
The sources, who spoke to APR on condition of anonymity, were all either present during discussions of the plan or consulted with those who were. They described a plan concocted by D.C.-based attorneys and championed by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and other ALGOP officials. That plan is rooted in the belief that the Supreme Court never seriously considered the merits of Alabama’s case, particularly in regards to upending Section 2, but instead limited its ruling to only the merits of the stay issued by the lower federal court.