U.W. Clemon Files Contempt Motion Against Wes Allen
As Alabama Republican lawmakers rush to pass legislation that will allow a quick switch to congressional districts conducive to greater GOP control in the state, voting rights advocates are not passively watching. Attorney U.W. Clemon has filed a motion in federal court accusing Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen of not abiding by terms Allen agreed to in a 2025 decree.
Last year, for a second time in four years, a federal court found Alabama’s 2021 congressional redistricting maps were racially discriminatory and ordered a more suitable map. After the state failed to produce an acceptable map, a federal court was ordered to draw the current map. Allen and Attorney General Steve Marshall agreed not to appeal the federal court injunction prohibiting a new map before the next census in four years.
Monday, Allen and Marshall filed an emergency request with federal court to be allowed to redistrict. The move comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that Louisiana's 2nd majority-minority district depended too much on race. The opinion weakened the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965 after marchers were beaten by Alabama State Troopers at Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Clemon alleges Allen reneged on the promise made to the court last June to not appeal the injunction. The former United States district judge wants Allen and Marshall held in contempt of court.
In submitting his request to the federal court Clemon wrote, “By his motion to expedite, Secretary Allen wilfully and knowingly repudiated the unequivocal representation he made to this court just last year that he would not challenge on appeal the duration of the permanent injunction."
Clemon points to Alabama's past history of defying the federal court in redistricting cases.
State leaders claim that agreement was made moot by the high court's ruling on the Louisiana redistricting case.
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