The

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

is currently divided into seven

congressional district Congressional districts, also known as electoral districts in other nations, are divisions of a larger administrative region that represent the population of a region in the larger congressional body. Countries with congressional districts includ ...

s, each represented by a member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

. Since the 1973

redistricting Redistricting in the United States is the process of drawing electoral district boundaries. For the United States House of Representatives, and state legislatures, redistricting occurs after each ten-year census. The U.S. Constitution in Art ...

following the 1970 U.S. census, Alabama has had seven

s. This is three fewer districts than the historic high of ten congressional districts just prior to the 1930 census. In the case of '' Allen v. Milligan'', 599 U.S. 1 (2023), the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

held that the state's current map violates section 2 of the

Voting Rights Act of 1965 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights move ...

() and needs to be redrawn with an additional black-majority district. The

Alabama Legislature The Alabama Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is a bicameral body composed of the House of Representatives and Senate. It is one of the few state legislatures in which members of both cham ...

approved another map which also violated the law, but a federal court selected a new map on appeal.

Current districts and representatives

The delegation has seven members: 5 Republicans and 2 Democrats.

Historical elections summary

File:Bama2002-06House.png, alt=2002/04/06 Alabama United States House of Representatives election by Congressional District, 2002 File:Bama2002-06House.png, alt=2002/04/06 Alabama United States House of Representatives election by Congressional District, 2004 File:Bama2002-06House.png, alt=2002/04/06 Alabama United States House of Representatives election by Congressional District, 2006 File:Bama2008House.png, alt=2008 Alabama United States House of Representatives election by Congressional District, 2008 File:Bama2010House.png, alt=2010 Alabama United States House of Representatives election by Congressional District, 2010 File:Bama2012-20House.png, alt=2012/14/16/18/20 Alabama United States House of Representatives election by Congressional District, 2012 File:Bama2012-20House.png, alt=2012/14/16/18/20 Alabama United States House of Representatives election by Congressional District, 2014 File:Bama2012-20House.png, alt=2012/14/16/18/20 Alabama United States House of Representatives election by Congressional District, 2016 File:Bama2012-20House.png, alt=2012/14/16/18/20 Alabama United States House of Representatives election by Congressional District, 2018 File:Bama2012-20House.png, alt=2012/14/16/18/20 Alabama United States House of Representatives election by Congressional District, 2020 File:Bama2022House.png, alt=2022 Alabama United States House of Representatives election by Congressional District, 2022 File:Bama2024House.png, alt=2024 Alabama United States House of Representatives election by Congressional District, 2024

Redistricting

2000s

The redistricting in 2002 following the 1990 census marginally strengthened the Democratic position, but did not contribute to any net changes by the parties over the decade. The biggest change in 2002 was to the 3rd district, which lost then arch-Republican stronghold St. Clair County in exchange for more Democratic parts of Montgomery County, including the area around the capitol. The district's black composition rose by 7 percent as a result. However, this did not lead to an unseating of the Republican member. The seat flips during the decade were a fluke flip of the Wiregrass-based 2nd district in the Democratic wave of 2008, and a flip (via party switch and then election of a different Republican) of the

Huntsville Huntsville is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the 100th-most populous city in the U.S. The Huntsville metropolitan area had an estimated 525,465 ...

and north Alabama-based 5th district as part of the continuing realignment of the rural white South towards nearly unanimous support for the Republican party. The

is in charge of apportionment and redistricting in Alabama. A bipartisan interim committee of 22 representatives (11 from the

Alabama House of Representatives The Alabama House of Representatives is the lower house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature (United States), state legislature of state of Alabama. The House is composed of 105 members representing an equal number of districts, with ...

, and 11 from the

Alabama Senate The Alabama State Senate is the upper house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alabama. The body is composed of 35 members representing an equal number of districts across the state, with each district con ...

) is formed to develop a redistricting plan for recommendation to the legislature. The

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

has

veto A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president (government title), president or monarch vetoes a bill (law), bill to stop it from becoming statutory law, law. In many countries, veto powe ...

power over both the state legislative and congressional plans. All redistricting plans in recent history have been court-ordered due to a failure on the part of the legislature to enact their own plans. The redistricting plan adopted after the 1990 census was first proposed by Republicans and ordered into effect by the federal courts. That plan moved black residents out of the 2nd and 6th districts, which had been competitive for Democrats. The 6th and 7th districts are considered by redistricting watch organizations such as

Fair Vote FairVote is a 501(c)(3) organization and Lobbying groups, lobbying group in the United States. It was founded in 1992 as Citizens for Proportional Representation to support the implementation of proportional representation in American elections ...

and the

National Committee for an Effective Congress The National Committee for an Effective Congress (NCEC) is a political action committee founded by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1948. It is one of America's most politically active independent liberal groups, pooling contributions from across the country ...

to be "irregular" or " gerrymandered". After a federal trial court rejected a racial gerrymandering claim regarding state house districts, the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

vacated and remanded. The five justice majority found "there is strong, perhaps overwhelming, evidence that race did predominate as a factor". Because the trial court had wrongly looked for racial gerrymandering at the statewide level the Supreme Court ordered the trial court to instead look at each district individually.

2020s

The initial map after the 2020 census passed by the Republican-controlled legislature in November 2021 did not significantly differ from the previous decade's map. It drew a single district with a heavily black population by putting the most heavily African-American areas of Jefferson and

Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal Plain, Gulf Coastal and Piedmont (United States), Piedm ...

counties in with much of the heavily African-American Black Belt and heavily African-American parts of the capital county of Montgomery. In a

per curiam In law, a ''per curiam'' decision or opinion (sometimes called an unsigned opinion) is one that is not authored by or attributed to a specific judge, but rather ascribed to the entire court or panel of judges who heard the case. The term is La ...

opinion on January 24, 2022, the

United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama The United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (in case citations, N.D. Ala.) is a federal court in the Eleventh Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are a ...

blocked as illegal the map passed by the Alabama legislature after a lawsuit was filed by the

ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. ...

and the

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (NAACP LDF, the Legal Defense Fund, or LDF) is an American civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City. LDF is wholly independent and separate from the NAACP. Although LDF ca ...

, ordering the legislature to draw two districts with either Black voting-age population majorities or "in which Black voters otherwise have an opportunity to elect a representative of their choice." This case reached the Supreme Court soon after. Subsequent briefing followed and oral argument culminated on October 4, 2022. The question presented for deliberations amongst the Justices and an eventual opinion was:

"Whether the state of Alabama's 2021 redistricting plan for its seven seats in the United States House of Representatives violated section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, 52 U. S. C. §10301.21"

On June 8, 2023 the

published its decision in '' Allen v. Milligan''. In a 5-4 opinion by Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh and

Jackson Jackson may refer to: Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson South, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson oil field in Durham, ...

, the Court ruled that Alabama's redistricting plan likely violates Section 2 of the VRA of 1965 by diluting the power of black voters, and ordered the State to draw a new map with an additional black-majority district. The state's legislature proceeded to draw a map which only marginally increased the share of Black voters in the 2nd district. Subsequently, the state was sued by the Milligan plaintiffs for noncompliance with the Court's decision. Soon after, the trial court ruled against the state and appointed a special master to redraw the map, Alabama's Attorney General Steve Marshall appealed to the Supreme Court for a stay of the decision, but his request was denied with no publicized dissents. Following this, the state withdrew all appeals, and one of the three proposed maps was approved by the trial court on October 5, 2023 to be put into place for the remaining decade. The new map, set to take effect for the 2024 U.S. House elections, significantly alters the 7th and

2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds, The Second, or (The) 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Minute and second of arc, ...

districts to have slim Black majority or plurality voting-age populations and span across the eastern portion of Alabama's Black Belt, with the 2nd district set to include portions of the cities of Phenix City, Montgomery and Mobile. In addition the map draws the southeastern coastal portion of Alabama from the 2nd district into the

1st First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

district.

History of congressional delegation

is typical of most southern states in its pattern, although there are a few interesting deviations. Admitted into the union in 1819, it first appointed members in the

18th United States Congress The 18th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C., from March 4, 182 ...

in 1823. Alabama's growing population coupled with the expansions of the

meant that by the time the Civil War broke out, Alabama had seven seats - all of which had been dominated by either Democrats or

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party (also referred to by historians as the Republican Party or the Jeffersonian Republican Party), was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early 1790s. It championed l ...

s up to that point. After the civil war, Alabama was subject to the

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

and placed under an effective military control for a period. Typical of this era, freedmen were given the right to vote, and the Republican federal government installed Republican candidates as senators, congressmen and governors. Alabama was no exception. However, by 1874 the Democratic party had re-established itself in Alabama, and a series of

s and then punitive race laws ensured that no Republicans remained congressmen after 1877. With very little deviation, Southern Democrats ( Dixiecrats) remained steadfastly dominant in Alabama until 1965. Over the next 30 years Republicans and Democrats shared representation of Alabama in Congress. By 1997 the Republicans had come to dominate Alabama's congressional holdings.

References

{{USCongDistStateAL

Congressional districts Congressional districts, also known as electoral districts in other nations, are divisions of a larger administrative region that represent the population of a region in the larger congressional body. Countries with congressional districts includ ...