In 2022, LDF made its return to the Supreme Court for the first time in seven years. Every year, LDF submits a few amicus briefs in various civil rights cases to the Court, but an LDF attorney had not delivered an oral argument before the Court since Buck v. Davis. But in 2022, Deuel Ross, LDF’s Deputy Director of Litigation, argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of Black Alabama voters in Allen v. Milligan. LDF challenged Alabama’s unconstitutional congressional map that denied Black voters equal opportunity to elect their candidates of choice. The Supreme Court ultimately agreed with LDF and ordered Alabama to redraw a map that complied with the law.
But arguments surrounding the redistricting cycle wouldn’t stop there for LDF. In October 2023, LDF returned to the Supreme Court to argue for fair representation for Black voters, this time for South Carolinians in Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. The congressional map the South Carolina House implemented created a racial gerrymander — Congressional District 1, which contains Charleston — that intentionally packed and cracked Black voters and prevented them from having equal access to elect candidates of their choice. LDF Senior Counsel Leah Aden argued on behalf of the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and an individual voter, Taiwan Scott.
Thurgood Marshall Institute Director, Karla McKanders, sat down with Ross and Aden to discuss the importance of their cases, how they prepared to argue before the highest court in the U.S., and how their work is a part of LDF’s deep history of safeguarding Black political participation.
On October 4, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the consequential redistricting case Allen v. Milligan formerly known as Merrill v. Milligan. The case was argued by LDF Senior Counsel Deuel Ross and challenges Alabama’s redistricting maps that deny Black residents an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect candidates of choice. The case was brought on behalf of Evan Milligan, Khadidah Stone, Letetia Jackson, Shalela Dowdy, Greater Birmingham Ministries, and the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP.
Allen v. Milligan is the most important redistricting case to come before the Supreme Court in recent history. The court’s decision is a historic win in the fight for voting rights in the face of countless continued attacks on democracy.
LDF has compiled answers to the most frequently asked questions about Allen v. Milligan,. Learn more about the case, it's impact, and greater efforts to promote fair representation and ballot access.
"There is nothing race neutral about Alabama's map. The district court’s unanimous and thorough intensely local analysis did not err in finding that the Black Belt is a historic and extremely poor community of substantial significance. Yet, Alabama’s map cracks that community and allows white bloc voting to deny Black voters the opportunity to elect representation responsive to their needs."
On October 31, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. The case was argued by LDF Senior Counsel Leah Aden and challenges South Carolina’s congressional map that intentionally packs and cracks Black voters in Congressional District No. 1. The case was brought on behalf of the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and an individual voter, Taiwan Scott.
LDF awaits a decision in this case, which could come at any moment, but in the meantime, LDF’s unwavering conviction when it comes to creating an equal, just, and diverse democracy will serve as a lodestar.
“In light of the total record, it reflects that there was a racial target, it reflects that there was a significant sorting of Black people, it reflects unrebutted expert evidence of race rather than party explaining the assignment of voters, it reflects a disregard of traditional redistricting principles — and all of that evidence in total is more than plausible, in the record, for using race as a means to harm individual plaintiffs."
When it comes to voting rights and protecting equal access to political power, South Carolina has a sordid history. Notably, South Carolina’s redistricting maps, which are redrawn every 10 years following the Census and determine the boundaries of state legislative and congressional districts, have been litigated every decade since 1970. LDF challenged this redistricting cycle's discriminatory map in the case Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP.
Nationwide, the state prison population more than quintupled in size between 1974 and 2000, mostly due to the “War on Drugs.” Black people are incarcerated in state prisons at a rate five times that of white people and Latinx people are imprisoned at a rate of 1.4 times higher than whites. Today, the prison population is over 2 million people and larger than 15 individual states. If the incarcerated population could form its own state, it would qualify for five votes in the Electoral College.
Over 300 federal programs use Census data in some way to distribute funds. They include health programs like Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program]s (CHIP), housing programs like Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers and the HOME Investment Partnerships, and educational programs like the Federal Pell Grant Program and Career and Technical Education grants. These programs address a wide variety of needs and challenges facing communities. A Census undercount runs the risk of Black communities being underfunded for critical social services.
