Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama

Editor's Note :

Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama

Interim Stat Pack for October Term 2018 – Adam Feldman

Justices release financial disclosures – Amy Howe

Challengers ask justices to put off census decision – Amy Howe

SCOTUSblog Coverage

SCOTUSblog Coverage

June 2019

Featured Posts

Sponsored by Casetext

SCOTUStalk see all

Email Digest Sign-Up

Merits Case Pages and Archives

Major Cases

Recent Decisions

Current Relists

Recent Special Features

Live Blog Archives

Merits Docket OT18 (June 10, 2019)

Merits Cases by Sitting

Majority Opinions by Author

Voting Breakdown Argued Cases

Majority Lineup 5-4 Decisions

June 2019

Download our App in the Apple Store

Videos see all

Peabody Award

Sigma Delta Chi

National Press Club Award

Silver Gavel Award

American Gavel Award

Webby Award

Conference of June 13, 2019

Linked with:

Alabama Democratic Conference v. Alabama

Docket No.	Op. Below	Argument	Opinion	Vote	Author	Term
13-895	M.D. Ala.	Nov 12, 2014 Tr.Aud.	Mar 25, 2015	5-4	Breyer	OT 2014

Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to this blog in various capacities, is among counsel to the petitioners in this case.

Holding: The district court’s analysis of the racial gerrymandering claim as referring to the state “as a whole,” rather than district by district, was legally erroneous; the district court also erred in holding that the Alabama Democratic Conference lacked standing. Moreover, the district court did not properly calculate “predominance” in its alternative holding that race was not the predominant motivating factor in the creation of any of the challenged districts. Finally, the district court’s other alternative holding – that the challenged districts would satisfy strict scrutiny – rests on a misperception of the law: Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act does not require a covered jurisdiction to maintain a particular numerical minority percentage. Instead, it requires the jurisdiction to maintain a minority’s ability to elect a preferred candidate of choice.

Judgment: Vacated and remanded, 5-4, in an opinion by Justice Breyer on March 25, 2015. Justice Scalia filed a dissenting opinion, in which Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Thomas and Alito joined. Justice Thomas filed a dissenting opinion.

Opinion analysis: A small victory for minority voters, or a case with “profound” constitutional implications? (Richard Hasen)
Argument analysis: Hitting the “sweet spot” on race, party, and redistricting? (Richard Hasen)
Argument preview: Racial gerrymandering, partisan politics, and the future of the Voting Rights Act (Richard Hasen)
Petitions of the day (Maureen Johnston)

Date	Proceedings and Orders (key to color coding)
Jan 23 2014	Statement as to jurisdiction filed. (Response due February 26, 2014)
Jan 23 2014	Appendix of Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, et al. filed.
Feb 4 2014	Order extending time to file response to statement as to jurisdiction to and including March 28, 2014.
Mar 24 2014	Order further extending time to file response to petition to and including April 21, 2014.
Apr 21 2014	Motion to dismiss or affirm filed by appellees Alabama, et al.
May 2 2014	Reply of appellants Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, et al. filed.
May 6 2014	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of May 22, 2014.
May 27 2014	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of May 29, 2014.
Jun 2 2014	PROBABLE JURISDICTION NOTED limited to Question 2 presented by the statement as to jurisdiction. Probable jurisdiction is noted in No. 13-1138 limited to Question 1 presented by the statement as to jurisdiction. The cases are consolidated and a total of one hour is allotted for oral argument.
Jul 10 2014	Consent to the filing of amicus curiae briefs in support of either party or of neither party, received from counsel for the appellees.
Jul 22 2014	The time to file the joint appendix and appellants' briefs on the merits is extended to and including August 13, 2014.
Jul 22 2014	The time to file appellees' briefs on the merits is extended to and including October 9, 2014.
Aug 13 2014	Brief of appellants Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, et al. filed.
Aug 13 2014	Joint appendix filed. VIDED. (Statement of costs filed)
Aug 15 2014	Consent to the filing of amicus curiae briefs, in support of either party or of neither party, received from counsel for the appellants.
Aug 20 2014	Brief amicus curiae of the United States in support of neither party filed. VIDED.
Aug 20 2014	Brief amicus curiae of Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in support of neither party filed. VIDED.
Aug 20 2014	Brief amicus curiae of NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. filed. VIDED.
Aug 20 2014	Brief amici curiae of North Carolina Litigants filed. VIDED.
Aug 20 2014	Brief amicus curiae of Brennan Center for Justice at N.Y.U. School of Law filed. VIDED.
Sep 4 2014	SET FOR ARGUMENT on Wednesday, November 12, 2014. VIDED.
Sep 8 2014	Record requested from U.S.D.C. for Middle District of Alabama.
Sep 9 2014	The Record received from U.S.D.C. for Middle District of Alabama is electronic and located on PACER.
Sep 19 2014	CIRCULATED
Sep 24 2014	Application (14A335) to file a consolidated appellees' brief on the merits in excess of the word limit, submitted to Justice Thomas. VIDED
Sep 29 2014	Application (14A335) granted by Justice Thomas to file a consolidated appellees' brief on the merits in excess of the word limit provided that the brief does not exceed 22,500 words.
Oct 9 2014	Brief of appellees Alabama, et al. filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
Oct 15 2014	Motion for divided argument filed by appellants. VIDED.
Oct 15 2014	Motion of the Solicitor General for enlargement of time for oral argument, for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae, and for divided argument filed. VIDED.
Oct 16 2014	Brief amici curiae of Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives and President Pro Tempore of the Alabama Senate filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
Oct 16 2014	Brief amici curiae of Pacific Legal Foundation, et al. filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
Oct 16 2014	Brief amicus curiae of Dalton J. Oldham filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
Oct 27 2014	Reply of appellants Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, et al. filed. (Distributed)
Oct 30 2014	Proposal of counsel for the appellees to lodge copies of the complaint in Figgs, et al. v. Quitman County, et al. VIDED
Oct 31 2014	Motion for divided argument filed by appellants GRANTED.
Oct 31 2014	Motion of the Solicitor General for enlargement of time for oral argument, for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae, and for divided argument GRANTED and the time is to be divided as follows: 30 minutes for appellants, 30 minutes for appellees, and 10 minutes for the Solicitor General as amicus curiae. VIDED
Nov 12 2014	Argued. For appellants in 13-895: Eric Schnapper, Seattle, Wash. For appellants in 13-1138: Richard Pildes, New York, N. Y. For United States, as amicus curiae: Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., Solicitor General, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C. For appellees: Andrew L. Brasher, Solicitor General, Montgomery, Ala.
Jan 30 2015	Motion to file a supplemental brief after argument filed by appellants Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, et al. (Distributed)
Feb 23 2015	Motion to file a supplemental brief after argument filed by appellants GRANTED.
Feb 26 2015	Motion to file a supplemental brief after argument filed by appellees Alabama, et al. (Distributed)
Mar 9 2015	Motion to file a supplemental brief after argument filed by respondent GRANTED.
Mar 25 2015	Judgment VACATED and case REMANDED. Breyer, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Kennedy, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan, JJ., joined. Scalia, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Roberts, C. J., and Thomas and Alito, JJ., joined. Thomas, J., filed a dissenting opinion.
Apr 27 2015	JUDGMENT ISSUED

Featured Posts

Interim Stat Pack for October Term 2018 – Adam Feldman

Justices release financial disclosures – Amy Howe

Challengers ask justices to put off census decision – Amy Howe
Sponsored by Casetext
SCOTUStalk see all
Email Digest Sign-Up
Receive a daily email digest from Feedburner by entering your email.
Merits Case Pages and Archives

Archives

or

This Week at the Court
The Supreme Court will release orders from the June 13 conference on Monday at 9:30 a.m.; John Elwood's "Relist Watch" compiles the petitions that were relisted for this conference.
There is a possibility of opinions on Monday at 10 a.m.
On Thursday, the justices meet for their June 20 conference.
Major Cases
- Department of Commerce v. New York
  (1) Whether the district court erred in enjoining the secretary of the Department of Commerce from reinstating a question about citizenship to the 2020 decennial census on the ground that the secretary’s decision violated the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 701 et seq; (2) whether, in an action seeking to set aside agency action under the APA, a district court may order discovery outside the administrative record to probe the mental processes of the agency decisionmaker -- including by compelling the testimony of high-ranking executive branch officials -- without a strong showing that the decisionmaker disbelieved the objective reasons in the administrative record, irreversibly prejudged the issue, or acted on a legally forbidden basis; and (3) whether the secretary’s decision to add a citizenship question to the decennial census violated the enumeration clause of the U.S. Constitution.
- Lamone v. Benisek
  In case in which the plaintiffs allege that a Maryland congressional district was gerrymandered to retaliate against them for their political views: (1) whether the various legal claims articulated by the three-judge district court are unmanageable; (2) whether the three-judge district court erred when, in granting plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, it resolved disputes of material fact as to multiple elements of plaintiffs’ claims, failed to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, and treated as “undisputed” evidence that is the subject of still-unresolved hearsay and other evidentiary objections; and (3) whether the three-judge district court abused its discretion in entering an injunction despite the plaintiffs’ years-long delay in seeking injunctive relief, rendering the remedy applicable to at most one election before the next decennial census necessitates another redistricting.
- Kisor v. Wilkie
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule Auer v. Robbins and Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co., which direct courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of its own ambiguous regulation.
- Rucho v. Common Cause
  (1) Whether plaintiffs have standing to press their partisan gerrymandering claims; (2) whether plaintiffs’ partisan gerrymandering claims are justiciable; and (3) whether North Carolina’s 2016 congressional map is, in fact, an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
- The American Legion v. American Humanist Association
  (1) Whether a 93-year-old memorial to the fallen of World War I is unconstitutional merely because it is shaped like a cross; (2) whether the constitutionality of a passive display incorporating religious symbolism should be assessed under the tests articulated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, Van Orden v. Perry, Town of Greece v. Galloway or some other test; and (3) whether, if the test from Lemon v. Kurtzman applies, the expenditure of funds for the routine upkeep and maintenance of a cross-shaped war memorial, without more, amounts to an excessive entanglement with religion in violation of the First Amendment.
- Gamble v. United States
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule the “separate sovereigns” exception to the double jeopardy clause.
see all this term’s cases »
Recent Decisions
- Quarles v. United States Michigan’s third-degree home-invasion statute substantially corresponds to or is narrower than generic burglary for purposes of qualifying for enhanced sentencing under the Armed Career Criminal Act.
- Parker Drilling Management Services, Ltd. v. Newton Under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, when federal law addresses the relevant issue, state law is not adopted as surrogate federal law on the Outer Continental Shelf.
- Return Mail Inc. v. United States Postal Service The federal government is not a “person” capable of petitioning the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to institute patent review proceedings under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act.
- Azar v. Allina Health Services Because the Department of Health and Human Services neglected its statutory notice-and-comment obligations when it revealed a new policy that dramatically – and retroactively – reduced Medicare payments to hospitals serving low-income patients, its policy must be vacated.
- Fort Bend County, Texas v. Davis The charge-filing precondition to suit set out in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is not a jurisdictional requirement.
- Mont v. United States Pretrial detention later credited as time served for a new conviction tolls a supervised-release term under 18 U.S.C. §3624(e), even if the court must make the tolling calculation after learning whether the time will be credited.
- Taggart v. Lorenzen A creditor may be held in civil contempt for violating a bankruptcy court’s discharge order if there is no fair ground of doubt as to whether the order barred the creditor’s conduct.
see all this term’s cases »
Current Relists
- Jordan v. City of Darien, Georgia Whether the existence of probable cause defeats a First Amendment retaliatory arrest claim as a matter of law.
- Klein v. Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (1) Whether Oregon violated the free speech and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment by compelling the Kleins to design and create a custom wedding cake to celebrate a same-sex wedding ritual in violation of their sincerely held religious beliefs; (2) whether the Supreme Court should overrule Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith; and (3) whether the Supreme Court should reaffirm Smith’s hybrid-rights doctrine, applying strict scrutiny to free exercise claims that implicate other fundamental rights, and resolve the circuit split over the doctrine’s precedential status.
- McGee v. McFadden (1) Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit erred when it found no constitutional error when the state failed to disclose Brady evidence, a letter from a jailhouse snitch, until the post-trial hearing for a motion for a new trial; (2) whether the state and federal courts’ decisions were contrary to Giglio v. United States, United States v. Bagley, Brady v. Maryland and Napue v. Illinois when the state failed to disclose material impeachment evidence, a letter from a jailhouse snitch who testified that petitioner confessed to him; and (3) whether the state and federal courts erred in finding that trial counsel rendered effective assistance of counsel when he failed to interview Michael Jones and call him as a witness.
More Petitions »
Recent Special Features
Statistical Snapshot

Cases argued 69

Cases decided 42

Summary reversals 5

Merits cases granted to date 73

see all »
Live Blog Archives
See all
Twitter Feed

Tweets by @SCOTUSblog

Merits Docket OT18 (June 10, 2019)
Merits Cases by Sitting
Majority Opinions by Author
Voting Breakdown Argued Cases
Majority Lineup 5-4 Decisions

Full Calendar Submit Event

Orders/Opinions
Arguments
Conferences

Events
Holidays
Multiple

Download our App in the Apple Store
Videos see all

Justice Thomas at the Supreme Court Historical Society

On June 3, Justice Clarence Thomas spoke with David Rubenstein for the Supreme Court Historical Society’s annual lecture at the Supreme Court.

Peabody Award
Awarded the Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media.
Sigma Delta Chi
Awarded the Sigma Delta Chi deadline reporting award for online coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
National Press Club Award
Awarded the National Press Club's Breaking News Award for coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
Silver Gavel Award
Awarded the Silver Gavel Award by the American Bar Association for fostering the American public’s understanding of the law and the legal system.
American Gavel Award
Awarded the American Gavel Award for Distinguished Reporting About the Judiciary to recognize the highest standards of reporting about courts and the justice system.
Webby Award
Awarded the Webby Award for excellence on the internet.

Cases argued	69
Cases decided	42
Summary reversals	5
Merits cases granted to date	73

3
Orders
Opinions

6
Conference

10
Orders
Opinions

13
Conference

17
Orders
Opinions

20
Conference