The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(1)The Legislature adheres to traditional redistricting principles when adopting congressional districts. Such principles are the product of history, tradition, bipartisan consensus, and legal precedent. The Supreme Court of the United States recently clarified that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act “never requires adoption of districts that violate traditional redistricting principles.”
(2)The Legislature’s intent in adopting the congressional plan in Act 2023-563 is to comply with federal law, including the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended.
(3)The Legislature’s intent is also to promote the following traditional redistricting principles, which are given effect in the plan created by Act 2023-563:
a. Dist
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The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(1) The Legislature adheres to traditional redistricting principles when adopting congressional districts. Such principles are the product of history, tradition, bipartisan consensus, and legal precedent. The Supreme Court of the United States recently clarified that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act “never requires adoption of districts that violate traditional redistricting principles.”
(2) The Legislature’s intent in adopting the congressional plan in Act 2023-563 is to comply with federal law, including the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended.
(3) The Legislature’s intent is also to promote the following traditional redistricting principles, which are given effect in the plan created by Act 2023-563:
a. Districts shall be based on total population as reported by the federal decennial census and shall have minimal population deviation.
b. Districts shall be composed of contiguous geography, meaning that every part of every district is contiguous with every other part of the same district.
c. Districts shall be composed of reasonably compact geography.
d. The congressional districting plan shall contain no more than six splits of county lines, which is the minimum number necessary to achieve minimal population deviation among the districts. Two splits within one county is considered two splits of county lines.
e. The congressional districting plan shall keep together communities of interest, as further provided for in subdivision (4).
f. The congressional districting plan shall not pair incumbent members of Congress within the same district.
g. The principles described in this subdivision are non-negotiable for the Legislature. To the extent the following principles can be given effect consistent with the principles above, the congressional districting plan shall also do all of the following:
1. Preserve the cores of existing districts.
2. Minimize the number of counties in each district.
3. Minimize splits of neighborhoods and other political subdivisions in addition to minimizing the splits of counties and communities of interest.
(4)a. A community of interest is a defined area of the state that may be characterized by, among other commonalities, shared economic interests, geographic features, transportation infrastructure, broadcast and print media, educational institutions, and historical or cultural factors.
b. The discernment, weighing, and balancing of the varied factors that contribute to communities of interest is an intensely political process best carried out by elected representatives of the people.
c. If it is necessary to divide a community of interest between congressional districts to promote other traditional districting principles like compactness, contiguity, or equal population, division into two districts is preferable to division into three or more districts. Because each community of interest is different, the division of one community among multiple districts may be more or less significant to the community than the division of another community.
d. The Legislature declares that at least the three following regions are communities of interest that shall be kept together to the fullest extent possible in this congressional redistricting plan: the Black Belt, the Gulf Coast, and the Wiregrass.
e.1. Alabama’s Black Belt region is a community of interest composed of the following 18 core counties: Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Choctaw, Crenshaw, Dallas, Greene, Hale, Lowndes, Macon, Marengo, Montgomery, Perry, Pickens, Pike, Russell, Sumter, and Wilcox. Moreover, the following five counties are sometimes considered part of the Black Belt: Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, Monroe, and Washington.
2. The Black Belt is characterized by its rural geography, fertile soil, and relative poverty, which have shaped its unique history and culture.
3. The Black Belt region spans the width of Alabama from the Mississippi border to the Georgia border.
4. Because the Black Belt counties cannot be combined within one district without causing other districts to violate the principle of equal population among districts, the 18 core Black Belt counties shall be placed into two reasonably compact districts, the fewest number of districts in which this community of interest can be placed. Moreover, of the five other counties sometimes considered part of the Black Belt, four of those counties are included within the two Black Belt districts — Districts 2 and 7.
f.1. Alabama’s Gulf Coast region is a community of interest composed of Mobile and Baldwin Counties.
2. Owing to Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico coastline, these counties also comprise a well-known and well-defined community with a long history and unique interests. Over the past half-century, Baldwin and Mobile Counties have grown even more alike as the tourism industry has grown and the development of highways and bay-crossing bridges have made it easier to commute between the two counties.
3. The Gulf Coast community has a shared interest in tourism, which is a multi-billion-dollar industry and a significant and unique economic driver for the region.
4. Unlike other regions in the state, the Gulf Coast community is home to major fishing, port, and ship-building industries. Mobile has a Navy shipyard and the only deep-water port in the state. The port is essential for the international export of goods produced in Alabama.
5. The Port of Mobile is the economic hub for the Gulf counties. Its maintenance and further development are critical for the Gulf counties in particular but also for many other parts of the state. The Port of Mobile handles over 55 million tons of international and domestic cargo for exporters and importers, delivering eighty-five billion dollars ($85,000,000,000) in economic value to the state each year. Activity at the port’s public and private terminals directly and indirectly generates nearly 313,000 jobs each year.
6. Among the over 21,000 direct jobs generated by the Port of Mobile, about 42 percent of the direct jobholders reside in the City of Mobile, another 39 percent reside in Mobile County but outside of the City of Mobile, and another 13 percent reside in Baldwin County.
7. The University of South Alabama serves the Gulf Coast community of interest both through its flagship campus in Mobile and its campus in Baldwin County.
8. Federal appropriations have been critical to ensuring the port’s continued growth and maintenance. In 2020, the Army Corps of Engineers allocated over two hundred seventy-four million dollars ($274,000,000) for the Port of Mobile to allow the dredging and expansion of the port. Federal appropriations have also been critical for expanding bridge projects to further benefit the shared interests of the region.
9. The Gulf Coast community has a distinct culture stemming from its French and Spanish colonial heritage. That heritage is reflected in the celebration of shared social occasions, such as Mardi Gras, which began in Mobile. This shared culture is reflected in Section 1-3-8(c), which provides that “Mardi Gras shall be deemed a holiday in Mobile and Baldwin Counties and all state offices shall be closed in those counties on Mardi Gras.” Mardi Gras is observed as a state holiday only in Mobile and Baldwin Counties.
10. Mobile and Baldwin Counties also work together as part of the South Alabama Regional Planning Commission, a regional planning commission recognized by the state for more than 50 years. The local governments of Mobile, Baldwin, and Escambia Counties, as well as 29 municipalities within those counties, work together through the commission with the Congressional Representative from District 1 to carry out comprehensive economic development planning for the region in conjunction with the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Under Section 11-85-51(b), factors the Governor considers when creating such a regional planning commission include “community of interest and homogeneity; geographic features and natural boundaries; patterns of communication and transportation; patterns of urban development; total population and population density; [and] similarity of social and economic problems.”
g.1. Alabama’s Wiregrass region is a community of interest composed of the following nine counties: Barbour, Coffee, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Geneva, Henry, Houston, and Pike.
2. The Wiregrass region is characterized by rural geography, agriculture, and a major military base. The Wiregrass region is home to Troy University’s flagship campus in Troy and its campus in Dothan.
3. All of the Wiregrass counties are included in District 2, with the exception of Covington County, which is placed in District 1 so that the maximum number of Black Belt counties can be included within just two districts.