This is an opinion column.
Everyone is entitled to a day in court, they say, but lawyers bill by the hour.
And the meter is running.
Plaintiffs in Allen v. Milligan have spent two years fighting the state’s Congressional maps. That’s a lot of billable hours.
They sued in 2021 to force Alabama to draw a second Congressional district where Black candidates might stand a chance of winning.
Of course, anyone can sue the state, but this wasn’t a frivolous lawsuit. The plaintiffs have won at every turn.
And Alabama lost.
Alabama lost at the US District Court.
Alabama lost at the U.S. Supreme Court.
This week, Alabama lost at the U.S. District Court — again.
No matter. The Alabama Attorney General’s office says it will appeal — again.
Attorney Gen. Steve Marshall wants to go back to the U.S. Supreme Court, hoping for a different outcome with the same justices, the same case and the same facts.
Good luck with that.
The three federal district judges (two of them Trump appointees) seemed bumfuzzled.
“We have now said twice that this Voting Rights Act case is not close,” the judges wrote in the latest order. “And we are deeply troubled that the State enacted a map that the State readily admits does not provide the remedy we said federal law requires.”
Alabama will not give up. Alabama will keep fighting.
And Alabama will keep on paying.
You see, in the end, if the state loses, the plaintiffs will get to send Alabama a bill for their legal fees.
I asked one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Deuel Ross, what sort of hit we should prepare for. He hasn’t done the math yet, he said, but similar cases have run up millions in legal bills and he didn’t expect this one to be different. And they absolutely would bill the state when it’s over.
Alabama will pay for the plaintiffs’ fees if it loses, but Alabama is already paying for its own legal fees, its own legal experts, its own travel and lodging, etc.
And don’t forget the two special legislative sessions we’ve had to call to draw maps the courts have junked.
It would be somewhat satisfying, when this is over, to tally up how much it all cost Alabama, but there are so many receipts junking up the drawer already, that it might be impossible.
And none of them will account for what might be the greatest cost of all — the damage to Alabama’s reputation. Alabama is doubling down on its reputation as a state hostile to Black people and that won’t do us any favors. We’ll never know how many folks and how many businesses considered Alabama, if only for a second, then said, “Nope.”
It has already cost Black Alabamians their rights under the law.
But one thing is for sure — who’s going to pay.
It won’t be Attorney General Steve Marshall or Solicitor General Edmund LaCour.
Neither will it be the redistricting committee chairmen, state Sen. Steve Livingston and Rep. Chris Pringle, who took their orders from LaCour.
It won’t be the 99 lawmakers who voted for these garbage maps without even knowing who drew them.
It won’t be the House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter or Senate Majority Leader Greg Reed who nudged the reluctant folks to go along with it, Black Democrats’ concerns be damned.
If the world were fair and justice perfect, we’d make every one of these folks open their own wallets and take food off their own tables to cover these costs. But that’s not how it works.
Instead, it will be taxpayers’ money out of taxpayers’ pockets.
And even if they don’t raise taxes to cover the bill (they won’t), they’ll take it out of taxpayers’ schools and taxpayers’ roads.
Alabama will pay.
And the meter is still running.
Go deeper with more columns by Kyle Whitmire
A discarded Republican map shows Alabama cheated Black voters
Meet the architect behind Alabama’s voting rights defiance
The moment Alabama’s lawyers turned a sure thing into blistering defeat
Alabama’s new congressional map is a feat of Republican cowardice
How 155 angy Confederates chained Alabama to its shameful past