The Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for Alabama to deploy a congressional map that eliminates one of the state's two majority-Black districts, handing a major victory to Republicans seeking to reshape electoral terrain before the 2026 midterms.
In a 6-3 decision split along ideological lines, the conservative-majority court granted an emergency request from Republican state officials to use a map enacted in 2023 that had never been implemented. The unsigned three-page order stated that Alabama is likely to ultimately succeed in defending the legality of the redrawn boundaries.
A federal trial court had twice found the map unconstitutional. In May, a three-judge panel concluded the state deliberately drew it to discriminate against Black voters in violation of the 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act. The court noted that Alabama created only one majority-Black district even after judges suggested two were required following their rejection of an earlier map in 2021.
The redrawn lines would put Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures at serious risk of defeat.
Conservative justices blamed the lower court for leaning too heavily on voting rights protections and for issuing its ruling close to the election. They argued the trial court failed to adequately account for a recent Supreme Court decision involving Louisiana that weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, requiring judges to defer more substantially to states' partisan redistricting choices.
"Here, the District Court interposed itself into Alabama's ongoing efforts to conduct its imminent 2026 congressional elections under maps that its elected representatives selected," the majority wrote.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall declared victory. "Tonight's decision is a major victory for Alabama and for the principle of self-governance," he said. "The United States Supreme Court confirmed what we always knew: that Alabama's Congressional maps are constitutional and lawful under the Voting Rights Act."
Dissenting Justice Sonia Sotomayor condemned the ruling as a betrayal of democratic principle. She said the decision "disregards both democratic values and the rule of law" and exposed how the majority "rewards Alabama's gamesmanship and outright defiance of court orders."
Sotomayor argued the court had created this mess through its Louisiana decision, which came less than three weeks before that state's primary elections, and now refused to correct it. Instead of allowing an "orderly election" under existing maps, she wrote, the court forced Alabama toward "a chaotic election, held under a never-before-used congressional map that intentionally discriminates against Black Alabamians."
The delay reshuffled Alabama's electoral calendar. The state postponed primary elections originally scheduled for May 19 while racing to revise its maps in response to the Louisiana ruling. Primaries are now set for August 11.
Civil rights groups erupted in protest. Kristen Clarke, general counsel of the NAACP, said the ruling amounts to approval for discrimination. "This is a Court that is stripping Black voters of power and voice at a speed that would put Jim Crow jurists to shame," she said, urging communities to respond by voting.
Tuesday's decision caps an extraordinary year of fast-track redistricting set in motion when President Donald Trump pressured Texas to redraw its congressional map to aid Republicans. Historically, states redraw districts only once a decade following the census. But the Louisiana Supreme Court ruling, which scaled back voting rights enforcement, prompted a wave of mostly Southern states to eliminate majority-Black districts held by Democrats.
Republicans hold a narrow House majority and are maneuvering aggressively to protect gains heading into the 2026 midterms.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "The Court has just handed Republicans a powerful tool to reshape competition in the South, but it did so by gutting the very law designed to prevent exactly this kind of partisan elimination of minority voting power."
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