Two Black representatives from Alabama are staring down the real possibility of losing their seats as the Supreme Court effectively dismantled a cornerstone of voting rights protection. The 6-3 decision in Louisiana v Callais strips away federal enforcement of a key section of the Voting Rights Act, handing Republican mapmakers across the South a green light to erase majority-minority congressional districts.
The ruling upends nearly four decades of law. Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which has been used to block electoral maps that produce racially discriminatory results, no longer requires states to draw districts where Black voters have a real chance to elect candidates of their choice. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito held that the law does not mandate majority-minority districts. Justice Elena Kagan's dissent, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, accused the majority of eviscerating the law.
Representatives Terri Sewell and Shomari Figures represent Alabama's two Black congressional districts, and both are vulnerable to redistricting aimed squarely at their removal from office. Sewell has held her seat since 2011, representing Alabama's seventh district, a sprawling area through the state's Black Belt that includes Selma, where she was raised. Figures, a first-term congressman from Mobile, won Alabama's second district in 2024 after the Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Allen v Milligan forced the state to draw it as a second opportunity district for Black voters.
The timing offers limited protection. Republican lawmakers will almost certainly redraw Alabama's maps, but the state's deadline for major party candidate qualification passed in January, making changes too late for the 2026 midterms. Sewell and Figures will likely survive November, but they face redistricting extinction in 2028.
"It's pretty frightening to think that on our collective watch, we're going backwards and not forwards," Sewell said before the decision, reflecting on those who fought and died for voting rights. "I wouldn't be here were it not for the Voting Rights Act. I mean, actually, all Black elected officials."
Figures was equally stark about the ruling's implications. "The impact will be great," he said. "The Voting Rights Act is about fairness. It's about having the opportunity to elect members of Congress of your choice, and not have the district lines drawn in a way that inhibits the ability of a significant racial group to have an impact in the outcome of an election."
The threat extends far beyond Congress. With the Voting Rights Act weakened, representation at every level is at risk: state legislatures, county commissions, city councils, school boards. Sewell warned of a return to at-large elections in majority-white counties that could strip away Black county commissioners and city council members entirely.
Both lawmakers are preparing a counteroffensive. Sewell said she plans to work with allies to strengthen the John R Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and rebuild federal protections damaged by the court's earlier Shelby County v Holder decision. "We came up with the Voting Rights Act, so we are just going to come up with another law," she said. "You better believe we're going to challenge whatever map that they create. This is not over yet."
Figures called for a return to grassroots organizing rooted in Alabama's own civil rights history. "The civil rights movement came with an insurance plan," he said. "It was called the right to vote."
For Sewell, who marched alongside John Lewis and grew up in the church where the foot soldiers of Bloody Sunday gathered before crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the moment carries the weight of that legacy. She invoked Lewis's final bridge crossing in 2019, when he returned to Selma with cancer, his voice still commanding: "Never give up. Never give in. Keep the faith and keep our eyes on the prize."
Author James Rodriguez: "The Supreme Court just handed a loaded weapon to Republican mapmakers, and the casualties will be felt in statehouses and city halls, not just Congress."
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