Alabama House Democrats hold press conference addressing redistricting hearing

Good afternoon, everyone. Again. I would like to personally thank the press for coming out covering this very important event. I think it's very important that the people of the state of Alabama understand what's going on and have *** play by play, play by play dynamics. But what I will say to you is that we feel very positive about the closing arguments that were made by the plaintiffs. We feel very positive about the questions that were asked by the judges to the State of Alabama that they were very unclear and they were not necessarily answering those questions directly. Uh When the judge asked, I think it was Judge Moore asked whether or not the state was being defiant to the court's guidelines and order and the state of Alabama kind of deflected and referenced back to some of the findings that were not necessarily acts within, within the guidelines. And so the guidelines were very clear. The goal was to draw an additional majority African American district where the African American community can't elect their candidate of choice or quite close. 40 39.8% is not quite close. It's very obvious that the judges were kind of frustrated with the State of Alabama and the legislature for not necessarily, uh, complying with their order and their guidance. And so what we feel, we feel very positive about the intended outcome and as the judges have requested the conclusion or guide us by 8 a.m. on Saturday morning. And so we'll see that's *** fast turnaround. And so we certainly can looking forward to seeing and reading the conclusion of both the plaintiff and the state of Alabama to see if there's any additional information that they're shedding light upon. But to the point that the state of Alabama mentioned that time has run out and that there, it's almost as if they're conceding that they understand that what they drew is not necessarily going to satisfy what the courts requested or their guidance. And so their sheer defiance, as the plaintiff attorney mentioned, they chose defiance over compliance. And I think that there are going to be some severe consequences over choosing defiance over compliant. And we look forward to seeing what the courts decide we fully anticipate that there will likely be *** redrawn districts redrawn by October 1 which is qualifying for both parties. And so we hope to give the people of Alabama an opportunity to start looking forward at the 2024 election and finally giving the African American community an opportunity to elect their candidate of choice in the additional district after it's redrawn, likely redrawn by the special master that's appointed by the courts. No, Attorney Kahan has stated the last question, is there any sort of, uh, vote by the state afterwards to try to uphold? I certainly anticipate an appeal to stay the current lines that were redrawn or the lines that we're under currently, I fully anticipate that because if they do *** state, then it only gives us an opportunity at one congressional district instead of two. And so certainly they're going to continue to try to delay. But I think the courts are very clear on what they've seen. The State of Alabama Act requested an opportunity to redraw the district lines, giving them *** shot at it and they fail, they totally failed at it. And so they continue to have of defiance instead of compliance. And so I fully anticipate them trying to appeal to say that it is *** racial gerrymander from what I could hear the state attorneys, the language that he's using clearly points to them filing an appeal, but also probably developing *** case for *** racial gerrymander because he referenced that *** few times during his closing arguments and also throughout the case today, name and my name is Anthony Daniels, uh Alabama State House Minority Leader. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.