A lawsuit filed on June 13, 2018 naming Secretary of State John Merrill and alleging the Alabama U.S. Congressional districts are in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has cleared a challenge by the state of Alabama. The court denied the states motion for judgment on the pleadings as to the jurisdictional issue.

Good News–A federal judge in Alabama has rejected the state's jurisdictional challenge to our redistricting lawsuit. The fight for voting rights continues! — Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) January 29, 2019

The Alabama suit claims the state’s 2011 map illegally “packs” black voters into its sole majority African-American district, now represented by U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, and “cracks” voters among three other districts. The lawsuit contends that Alabama’s black population is large enough, and geographically compact enough, to form a second majority-minority district.

These lawsuits have had success in other states such as Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Virginia.

You can read the ruling via this link as well as the original complaint here. For a complete look at the entire lawsuit checkout Chestnut v. Merrill.