Davin Rosborough

The Supreme Court this term will hear Merrill v. Milligan, a case concerning Alabama’s congressional districts that may have serious implications for the power of Section 2 of the . The Supreme Court should reject Alabama’s dangerous invitation to remake the Voting Rights Act into a law that entrenches — rather than fights against — racial discrimination in voting.

On October 4th, the Supreme Court is set to hear Milligan v. Merrill, a case that would undermine Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. At question is Alabama’s new congressional map, a map that underwent what is called racial gerrymandering or racial redistricting, diluting Black Alabamans’ voting power. The case’s outcome will determine the future of voting rights in America.

In November 2021, the ACLU, ACLU of Alabama, Legal Defense Fund, Hogan Lovells LLP, and Wiggins Childs LLC sued Alabama on behalf of four individual voters—Evan Milligan, Shalela Dowdy, Letetia Jackson, and Khadidah Stone—as well as Greater Birmingham Ministries and the NAACP of Alabama, challenging Alabama’s new congressional district boundaries as racially discriminatory under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.