Vote suppressor Edmund LaCour confirmed to federal bench in Alabama
He now has a lifetime judgeship in the birthplace of the Voting Rights Act.
The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Edmund LaCour to a lifetime seat on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, further cementing a Trump-appointed majority on the court. When his newest appointees — Harold Mooty and LaCour — are sworn in, two thirds of the active lifetime judges on the court will be nominated by Trump.
Over the course of his two terms, the president has now appointed six judges to the Northern District of Alabama — a powerfully important civil rights district that is home to Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and other areas rich in civil rights history. All six judges are white.
But while Trump has named six white judges to this court since 2017, only two lifetime judges of color — Judge U. W. Clemon and Judge Abdul Kallon, both Black men — have ever served on this court. President Carter appointed Judge Clemon to the court in 1980, making the iconic civil rights lawyer the first Black lifetime judge in the state. Judge Kallon, who was nominated by President Obama and who previously clerked for Judge Clemon, replaced him on the bench but has since retired. Last week, Kallon’s seat was filled by Trump appointee Harold Mooty — leaving the Northern District of Alabama without a lifetime judge of color.
Federal courts in Alabama and across the nation need diverse civil rights lawyers like Judge Clemon serving on the bench. Unfortunately, the confirmation of LaCour, in particular, threatens civil and human rights and weakens our democracy.
LaCour’s record on voting rights is especially troubling given that he will be serving in Alabama — the birthplace of the Voting Rights Act. From Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery march, to Shelby County v. Holder and more recent attempts to disenfranchise the state’s Black voters, Alabama has always been at the center of the nation’s struggle for multiracial democracy and the freedom to vote.
In a letter submitted to Senate and Senate Judiciary Committee leadership on September 10, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) wrote that LaCour, who is solicitor general of Alabama, “has been directly involved in both designing and defending laws that federal courts have found violate the constitutional and statutory rights of Black people.” LDF detailed LaCour’s role in Allen v. Milligan, which he argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in October 2022 in defense of voter suppression. According to LDF:
On appeal to the Supreme Court, Mr. LaCour defended Alabama’s racially discriminatory map. He urged the Supreme Court to overturn decades of precedent to hold that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional and asked the Court to embrace a new standard for Section 2 cases that would make it nearly impossible for Black voters to win. Fortunately, the Supreme Court rejected Mr. LaCour’s arguments and affirmed the three-judge court.
When the case returned to the Northern District — the court on which LaCour will now serve — so that the congressional map could be corrected, Alabama drew a map that did not comply with the clear directions the state was given. According to LDF, “Alabama drew a map that Mr. LaCour acknowledged did not comply,” and he “played a direct role in drawing Alabama’s non-compliant and unconstitutional map” and “supplied legislators with talking points and legal reasoning to support the State’s non-compliance.”
More recently, as LDF wrote:
In May 2025, after a trial, the three-judge court issued an over 500-page decision finding that the Alabama Legislature intentionally discriminated in passing the 2023 map. The Court highlighted the unique role Mr. LaCour played in both drawing and defending the 2023 map. The Court also emphasized the threat to the rule of law that Alabama’s intentional defiance of court orders, led by Mr. Lacour, represents.
During Trump’s first term, the NAACP highlighted the connection between the president’s judicial selections and efforts to restrict the vote. Edmund LaCour’s confirmation continues this shameful trend. Someone with such a clear and disgraceful record of attempting to disenfranchise Black voters does not belong on the federal bench — in Alabama or anywhere. But Trump’s installation of this man, on this court, is particularly disturbing.
There’s more. Earlier this month, Lambda Legal sounded the alarm about LaCour’s record of hostility to LGBTQ+ equality. In their letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, they noted that “As the Solicitor General of Alabama, he has defended anti-LGBTQ+ laws within Alabama. He has also taken a special interest in ensuring that anti-LGBTQ+ laws in other states are upheld by courts and that pro-LGBTQ+ decisions are overturned. He’s joined amicus briefs supporting laws that ban transgender youth from playing sports with their peers, accessing medically necessary health care, and using the restrooms and other facilities that match who they are.”
Another letter sent to the Senate from 31 organizations focused on LaCour as an example of Trump’s appointment of judges who have both anti-voting rights and anti-reproductive rights records. The groups noted his defense of voter suppression laws and his defense of Alabama’s total abortion ban, in addition to his repeated use of dangerous, so-called “fetal personhood” language in his filings.
The groups — including organizations like the National Women’s Law Center, National Council of Jewish Women, and National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum — wrote:
In sum, the growing number of Trump’s judicial nominees who have both extensive anti-reproductive rights and anti-voting rights experience is a threat to democracy. Often states with the most repressive laws that restrict reproductive freedom also have laws that seek to disenfranchise voters from choosing those who will represent them. Stacking the court with judges who have been in the forefront of challenging reproductive rights and freedoms and anti-discrimination protections for voters of color is gravely concerning and clearly a deliberate effort to undermine the will of the people.
LDF noted additional concerns with his record, including opposing ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and working to block Birmingham’s attempt to increase the local minimum wage, “a measure that would have directly improved the lives of thousands of Black workers in the city.”
The Northern District of Alabama, which is once again now staffed only by white judges, deserves better than the appointment of a young white man who is deeply hostile to civil and human rights. Judges should be fair-minded and committed to equal justice for all. Edmund LaCour has shown he is not — and for that, Trump and Senate Republicans have, to the peril of our democracy, rewarded him with a lifetime judgeship.
Heartbreaking.