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Page Number: 19

10 

MERRILL v. MILLIGAN 

KAGAN, J., dissenting 

202.  And the legislature has all the tools necessary to draw 
another, including “access to an experienced cartographer” 
and “not just one or two, but at least eleven illustrative re-
medial  plans”  complying  with  the  District  Court’s  injunc-
tion.  Id., at 214.  For that matter, nothing about the court’s 
injunction  could  have  come  as  a  surprise.    The  State  has 
been  on  notice  “since  at  least  2018”  that  these  or  similar 
plaintiffs (after receiving new census data) “would likely as-
sert a Section Two challenge to any 2021 congressional re-
districting plan that did not include two majority-Black dis-
tricts or districts in which Black voters otherwise have an 
opportunity to elect a representative of their choice.”  Id., at 
202.  And indeed, the legislature in this current election cy-
cle considered at least one alternative map containing two 
majority-Black districts.   Ibid.;  see  Joint Stipulated  Facts 
in No. 2:21–cv–1530 (ND Ala.), ECF Doc. 53, p. 22, ¶¶113–
114.  Simply put, Alabama has known for quite some time 
that the VRA may require it to draw a different map; it has 
all it needs to do so; and it has shown just how quickly it 
can act when it wants to. 
  And  Alabama  cannot  here  invoke  the  so-called  Purcell 
principle,  which  disfavors  changing  election  rules  at  the 
eleventh  hour.    See  Purcell  v.  Gonzalez,  549  U. S.  1,  4–5 
(2006)  (per  curiam).    Alabama  contends  that  the  District 
Court’s order comes too late because changing the map now 
may  confuse  voters  who  are  moved  to  new  precincts,  and 
may  hurt  “non-major-party  candidates”  who  “have  to 
scramble  to  obtain”  new signatures.   Application  39.   But 
the District Court was right to say that “this case is not like 
Purcell because we are not ‘just weeks before an election.’ ”  
App. 261 (quoting Purcell, 549 U. S., at 4).  The general elec-
tion is around nine months away; the primary date is in late 
May, about four months from now.  See App. 261.  Even the 
first  day  of  absentee  primary  voting  (which  Alabama  has 
leeway to modify) is March 30, more than two months after