Alabama: 11th circuit affirms dismissal of challenge to legislative redistricting
The Eleventh Circuit today affirmed the dismissal of a partisan-gerrymander challenge to the legislative redistricting. The opinion is unpublished.
The case had been heard by a three-judge court in the Southern District of Alabama. It ruled that the plaintiffs were barred by claim preclusion (res judicata). When the plaintiffs appealed to the 11th Circuit, the defendants argued that the Circuit Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the appeal because the case should have been appealed to the Supreme Court. The Circuit Court rejected that argument.
On the claim preclusion issue, the court affirmed and held that the plaintiffs were virtually represented by different plaintiffs bringing similar suits a few years earlier.
Disclosure: Jim Blacksher and I represented Speaker of the House Seth Hammett, a defendant-intervenor in the case.