From the office of House Minority Leader Craig Ford
“After consulting with our attorneys, the House Democratic Caucus has decided not to file a petition for a temporary restraining order on the new state legislative redistricting plans. While it remains our belief that the legislative redistricting plans violate the state constitution’s requirement that all redistricting plans be drawn during the first legislative session after the census has been completed, pursuing the T.R.O. at this time would limit our ability to further challenge these plans at the Federal level should our petition for the T.R.O. fail in the state courts.
Redistricting is a serious issue. Every voter deserves to have equal representation in the legislature, but the redistricting plans Republican leaders forced the legislature diminish the representation of thousands of voters by unnecessarily splitting counties and removing African American voters from ‘influence districts.’ Our goal is to protect these voters’ right to be represented, but we cannot do that if a challenge in state court ties our hands in federal court.”
Representative Ford is a Democrat from Gadsden and the Minority Leader of the State House of Representatives. He has served in the Alabama House of Representatives since 2000. In 2010, Representative Ford was elected House Minority Leader by the House Democratic Caucus. He was re-elected Minority Leader in 2012.
