Sheila McNeil thought she had a clear path to the ballot: run unopposed in the Democratic primary for Alabama's Public Service Commission, then face the Republican nominee in November for a seat on the powerful three-person body that regulates the state's utilities, including Alabama Power. That plan lasted until the Alabama legislature's annual session concluded.
In a rush of activity that McNeil's lawyers say was directly sparked by watching two Democrats in neighboring Georgia unseat Republican utility regulators on a wave of voter anger over high energy prices, Alabama lawmakers passed legislation that fundamentally restructured the PSC. The bill expanded the commission from three to seven members, made it significantly harder to call a formal rate case to assess Alabama Power's energy prices—a process that hasn't occurred since the 1980s—and created a new secretary of energy position appointed by the governor to largely control the commission's agenda. The changes came so late in the legislative session that candidates like McNeil and fellow Democrat John Northrop, who was seeking a second contested seat, found the job they were running for had been altered mid-campaign.
McNeil responded by filing a federal lawsuit challenging the restructuring as unconstitutional. Her legal team argues in the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama that the changes violate the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause by disrupting an ongoing election and altering the fundamental character of the office being contested. More pointedly, they contend the law violates the Voting Rights Act by diluting minority voting power. Under the new structure, where each of Alabama's seven congressional districts receives one PSC seat, Black voters would be able to elect their preferred candidates in only one or two seats—a dramatic reduction from the previous statewide elections for three seats, where minority voters could pool their influence across multiple races.
The timing and context matter enormously here. No Black Alabamian has ever served on the PSC, whose historical membership includes Bull Connor, Birmingham's infamous segregationist police chief. No Democrat has served on the commission since 2012. The new law, McNeil's lawyers argue, effectively converts the PSC commissioner position from "a position of independent regulatory authority into one that is substantially subordinate to the executive branch," since commissioners cannot set their own agenda without the governor's appointed secretary of energy, or muster a supermajority of five votes to call a rate case without that secretary's approval.
The lawsuit has drawn support from clean energy advocates. Daniel Tait, executive director of Energy Alabama, a statewide environmental nonprofit, expressed satisfaction with seeing the new law challenged in court. John Northrop, the other Democratic candidate whose race was upended by the legislation, announced his withdrawal from the contest shortly after the bill passed, saying plainly: "The law has changed the PSC's function, authority, size, and the term length of commissioners. The new job is not the job I signed up to win."
McNeil's legal team has asked the judge to issue a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of the changes before the case can be fully heard. The outcome could determine not only who gets to regulate Alabama's utilities, but whether lawmakers can rewrite the rules of an election after candidates have already entered the race.