Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-1086_1co6.pdf
Page Number: 14

Cite as:  599 U. S. ____ (2023) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

latter  layered  atop  the  former;  District  6  is  right  in  the 
State’s middle; and District 7 spans the central west.  Id., 
at 951. 
  In  2020,  the  decennial  census  revealed  that  Alabama’s 
population had grown by 5.1%.  See 1 App. 86.  A group of 
plaintiffs  led  by  Alabama  legislator  Bobby  Singleton sued 
the State, arguing that the existing congressional map was 
malapportioned and racially gerrymandered in violation of 
the Equal Protection Clause.  582 F. Supp. 3d, at 938–939.  
While litigation was proceeding, the Alabama Legislature’s 
Committee on Reapportionment began creating a new dis-
tricting map.  Ibid.  Although the prior decade’s population 
growth did  not  change the  number of seats  that  Alabama 
would receive in the House, the growth had been unevenly 
distributed across the State, and the existing map was thus 
out of date. 
  To  solve  the  problem,  the  State  turned  to  experienced 
mapmaker Randy Hinaman, who had created several dis-
tricting  maps  that  Alabama  used  over  the  past  30  years.  
Id.,  at  947–948.   The starting  point  for Hinaman was  the 
then-existing  2011  congressional  map,  itself  a  product  of 
the 2001 map that Hinaman had also created.  Civ. No. 21–
1530 (ND Ala.), ECF Doc. 70–2, pp. 40, 93–94; see also 582 
F. Supp.  3d,  at  950.   Hinaman worked  to  adjust the  2011 
map in accordance with the redistricting guidelines set by 
the legislature’s Reapportionment Committee.  Id., at 948–
950;  1  App.  275.    Those  guidelines  prioritized  population 
equality, contiguity, compactness, and avoiding dilution of 
minority voting strength.  582 F. Supp. 3d, at 1035–1036.  
They also encouraged, as a secondary matter, avoiding in-
cumbent pairings, respecting communities of interest, min-
imizing  the  number  of  counties  in  each  district,  and  pre-
serving cores of existing districts.  Id., at 1036–1037. 
  The resulting map Hinaman drew largely resembled the 
2011 map, again producing only one district in which black 
voters constituted a majority of the voting age population.