Richard Allen has served as a chief deputy under four Alabama attorneys general, was state prison commissioner for five years, and retired from the U.S. Army Reserve as a brigadier general.

Allen has a new job, to oversee the process of drawing a new congressional map for Alabama.

A three-judge federal court ruled Tuesday that Alabama’s congressional map, approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature in July, did not fix a likely violation of the Voting Rights Act.

The court ordered Allen and a cartographer, David Ely, to begin working on a new map.

That order did not come as a surprise. The court first appointed Allen as special master in the case in February 2022, after ruling that Alabama’s 2021 congressional map most likely violated the Voting Rights Act. No parties in the case objected to Allen’s appointment.

The court appointed a cartographer last year, too, but he later withdrew from the case. Last month, the court appointed a new cartographer, selecting David Ely from a list of names suggested by the state and plaintiffs in the case. Ely was one of the plaintiffs’ nominees, but the state did not object to his appointment.

Ely has served as a map-drawer and consultant for legislatures in Texas, California, Utah, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Illinois and was special master in a federal court redistricting case in Louisiana. Ely is president of Compass Demographics, a company he founded in 2007.

When the judges appointed Allen last year, they described him as “an esteemed public servant with eminent knowledge of Alabama state government.”

Allen graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law after seven years of active duty military service. Allen was a clerk for Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Howell Heflin, then worked in private practice at a Montgomery law firm, according to the judges’ appointment order.

When Heflin was elected to the U.S. Senate, Allen worked as chief legislative assistant for the senator. He returned to Montgomery and spent 15 years in private practice before Attorney General Jeff Sessions picked him as chief deputy AG. Allen would keep that job for 10 years, under attorneys general Sessions, Bill Pryor, and Troy King.

Allen returned to private practice, then accepted an appointment from Gov. Bob Riley as state prison commissioner, a job he held for five years.

Allen worked as chief deputy under Attorney General Luther Strange, and for four years as parliamentary law advisor for then Kay Ivey when she was lieutenant governor.

After graduation from law school, Allen spent 20 years as an officer in the U.S. Army reserve.

The court intends for the new map to be used in Alabama’s 2024 congressional elections.

Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall said the state will appeal the three-judge court’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. In June, the Supreme Court affirmed the ruling by the three-judge court rejecting Alabama’s 2021 map.