By Kyle Whitmire, state political columnist for AL.com and winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize.
This is an opinion column.
The bills have come due, Alabama. Two of them, anyway.
Attorneys who sued the state — to force our officials to follow federal law — have submitted their legal fees for Alabama to pay.
The total? $5.25 million — so far.
That’s the average salary of about 100 teachers in classrooms.
That’s 115 health inspectors to keep restaurants clean.
That’s enough to hire 140 new State Troopers to keep our roadways safe.
That’s millions spent fighting against giving Black voters a proportionate voice in Alabama politics — redistricting maps rejected by Trump-appointed federal judges and the United States Supreme Court — twice.
That’s what Alabama politicians’ pig-headed stubbornness has cost us so far. And the meter is still running.
It didn’t have to be this way.
Three years ago, I was there when the stupidity began. In a committee room in the Alabama State House, lawmakers gathered to draw new congressional districts, only — magically it would seem — the maps had already been drawn by … somebody.
State Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, asked what should have been a simple question: Who drew these maps?
The Republicans in charge, the co-chairs on the joint redistricting committee, never gave a straight answer.
But one thing was clear. The new maps ensured the GOP would maintain solid majorities in all but one of the state’s Congressional districts – same as before. The map packed as many Black Alabamians as possible into one congressional district to make certain they wouldn’t have political sway in any others.
Two sets of Black plaintiffs — known as the Milligan plaintiffs and the Caster plaintiffs — sued, taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
It should have been home-cooking for Alabama in front of what is seen as a more conservative court, but the state’s attorneys attempted to use the case to gut what’s left of the Voting Rights Act. The state overreached and spooked justices who might otherwise have been open to more incremental weakening of voter protections.
Instead, the court ruled for the plaintiffs and ordered the state to draw a second majority Black district or something close to it.
At every step, at every level, the courts have sided with the plaintiffs in this case. That should have been a sign it was a stinker.
Despite this, the Alabama Attorney General’s office refused to take “no” for an answer. Alabama Solicitor General Edmund LaCour urged Alabama lawmakers to defy the federal courts. According to sworn testimony from Republican lawmakers, he even helped draw a new set of non-compliant maps.
When Alabama’s attorneys returned to court for a silly, pathetic do-over attempt — a Milligan mulligan — the lower court justices, including Trump appointees to the bench, seemed dumbfounded by the state’s obstinance.
Alabama lost again, and it appealed to the Supreme Court again.
This time, the high court didn’t bother humoring the state with a hearing. It shut the state down without further arguments.
Last month the plaintiffs submitted their expenses to the state, and the state agreed to pay them — $3 million for the Milligan plaintiffs and $2.25 million for the Caster plaintiffs.
But here’s the thing. It’s still not over.
Despite this process having taken nearly three years, all of the rulings so far have technically been the product of preliminary hearings and rulings. Alabama officials now seem to want another round — a full trial — next year.
Never mind they would go before the same judges with the same witnesses and the same evidence. Forget that they would inevitably go back to the same U.S. Supreme Court that has already ruled against Alabama twice.
Alabama officials still haven’t given up.
“Twice, Alabama has enacted discriminatory congressional maps. And twice federal courts have struck them down,” said Deuel Ross, a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund who is representing the Milligan plaintiffs. “Rather than going to trial next year and wasting more resources to defend the indefensible, state funds would be better spent on supporting the people of Alabama.”
But we will keep on paying — in tax dollars, in teachers, health and highway workers.
Because this is Alabama, where our officials will spare no expense before admitting they were ever wrong.
