Alabama reclaimed its congressional map Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court sent redistricting litigation back to the lower court, torching the last obstacle to the state’s Legislature-drawn districts.
The order, issued over the objection of the court’s three liberal justices, means Alabama can move forward with the 2023 map that restores a single majority-Black congressional district and eliminates the court-imposed second district that handed Democrats two of the state’s seven seats in 2024.
The ruling validates the breakneck pace Alabama Republicans set over the past two weeks. Governor Kay Ivey called a special session days after the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais gutted the legal framework behind court-ordered majority-minority districts.
The Legislature passed contingency legislation in five days authorizing special replacement primaries if the courts lifted the injunction blocking Alabama’s maps.
Attorney General Steve Marshall filed emergency motions in three redistricting cases the same day Ivey signed the bills.
Monday’s order delivers exactly what Marshall asked for.
Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, calling the court’s action “inappropriate” and warning it “will cause only confusion as Alabamians begin to vote in the elections scheduled for next week.”
Alabama’s redistricting battle stretches back to 2021, when the Legislature drew post-census maps that civil rights plaintiffs challenged as a Voting Rights Act violation. The Supreme Court ruled against the state in 2023’s Allen v. Milligan decision, and a court-drawn map with two majority-Black districts was imposed for the 2024 elections. Democrats won both seats.
The Callais ruling last month changed the legal landscape entirely, holding that plaintiffs cannot treat race and political affiliation as interchangeable when challenging state maps under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
[UPDATE: This is a breaking story and will be updated with statements from Alabama officials.]
Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at [email protected].
