An Alabama voter rights group sued the Secretary of State earlier this year to gain free access to a partial list of the registered voters. On June 2, U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson, a Carter appointee, ruled against the Secretary of State’s request to dismiss the lawsuit. Now there will be a trial.
The plaintiff is the Greater Birmingham Ministries. It wants the list of persons whose voter registration was purged. The state is willing to sell these records, but the plaintiff believes the federal Voting Rights Act guarantees them a free copy. Greater Birmingham Ministries v Merrill, m.d., 2:22cv-205.
This case had originally been filed in the northern district, but on April 13, the judge in that district ruled that it must be filed in the middle district, which contains the state capital, Montgomery. The case was then re-filed in Montgomery.
What is the legal difference between this case and the one the libertarians just lost?
The one the Libertarians lost depends on the U.S. Constitution, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1970. This case depends on the federal voting rights act.