Mayor Steven L. Reed Responds to Federal Court Decision Blocking Alabama Congressional Map

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Steven L. Reed issued the following statement after a federal court blocked the State of Alabama from implementing its 2023 congressional map, ruling that the map unlawfully diluted Black voting power:

"Today, a federal court delivered a resounding victory for democracy and a sharp rebuke to the Alabama legislature's coordinated campaign to disenfranchise Black voters. By blocking the state from resurrecting its discriminatory 2023 congressional map, this three-judge panel stopped an intentional, race-based gerrymander from tainting our upcoming elections.

For weeks, state leaders attempted to exploit recent Supreme Court rulings to roll back the clock. They rushed into a special session and tried to erase a hard-won, court-mandated district that finally gave Black Alabamians a fair voice in Washington. Today, the federal court looked directly at that effort, recognized the intentional discrimination behind it, and ordered the state to use a map with two true opportunity districts.

This case was never simply about lines on a map. It is about whether Black communities - and all communities - have a meaningful opportunity to shape the political and economic future of this state. Democracy cannot function when representation is treated as something to manipulate instead of something to protect.

Today's ruling is a powerful vindication. It affirms what we in Montgomery - the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement - have always known: political representation is not a privilege to be granted or revoked by partisan whim. It is a fundamental right, earned through the blood, sweat, and sacrifice of those who marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, organized in our streets, and demanded that this country live up to its promises.

But we should harbor no illusions. This injunction is a temporary shield, not a permanent victory. Extreme partisan leaders have made their intentions clear, and they will almost certainly appeal this decision directly to the Supreme Court. The legal whiplash will continue.

That is why our response cannot begin and end in a courtroom.

We must meet this moment with the same relentless organizing, coalition-building, and civic engagement that has always moved this country forward. If their goal was to breed voter apathy, they have failed entirely. They have only strengthened our resolve.

The South has always been the testing ground for American democracy. And once again, Alabama is forcing this nation to decide whether representation will belong to the people - or to politicians determined to manipulate the rules to hold onto power.

We will not be silenced.

We will not be erased.

And we will meet this moment the same way generations before us did: by organizing, voting, building, and refusing to surrender our democracy to cynicism, extremism, or suppression."