On February 5, U.S. District Court Judge Keith Watkins upheld Alabama’s at-large partisan elections for State Supreme Court and State Appeals Court. The decision is 120 pages. Alabama State Conference of NAACP v State, m.d., 2:16cv-731.

Only two days before, the Eleventh Circuit had issued a ruling in this case, saying the lawsuit is not procedurally flawed. The new U.S. District Court decision complies with that ruling, and says that the lawsuit is procedurally valid, but that the NAACP did not prove that at-large elections injure African-American voters and candidates, even though no African-American has ever been elected to a state appeals court, and only twice in history has an African-American been elected to the State Supreme Court. Both victories were more than a quarter of a century ago.