After initially tempering expectations for one earlier this week, Governor Kay Ivey will convene a special session of the Alabama Legislature on Sunday to begin drawing new congressional maps following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.
The Alabama House and Senate will convene at 4:00 p.m. on May 4.
Alabama remains under a federal court order preventing the Legislature from redrawing its congressional maps until 2030, but on Friday, Ivey and legislative leaders said the session will produce a contingency map that would take effect if the U.S. Supreme Court remands the state’s case to a lower court with instructions to apply the Callais ruling.
The Governor said she remains hopeful Alabama will receive a favorable outcome.
“Following the successful 2020 census, Alabama maintained our representation in Congress, and I called a special session to redraw our maps. Since then, we have been battling federal courts and activist groups who think they know Alabama better than Alabama,” Governor Kay Ivey wrote.
“Earlier this week, however, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a positive decision in the Louisiana v. Callais case, which I said was encouraging for our own pending litigation. I also acknowledged that Alabama’s redistricting battle is not over.
The state remains under a court order prohibiting the use of new congressional maps until after the 2030 census.
While we were not yet in position to call a special session earlier this week, I said we needed to keep up our fight in the courts.”
Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) and Alabama Senate President Pro Tempore Garlan Gudger (R-Cullman) issued a joint statement:
“After extensive dialogue and careful planning among Alabama’s legislative leadership and Governor Ivey, we are grateful for the opportunity to convene in a special session to address the issue of redistricting,” Ledbetter and Gudger wrote today.
Governor Ivey is right: while SCOTUS delivered a landmark victory for conservatives, Alabama’s situation is unlike many other states, as we are under a court order preventing the State Legislature from redrawing congressional maps until 2030.
With that said, we can and will set a contingency plan in place for our state’s primary elections should the U.S. Supreme Court remand Alabama’s current case to a lower court with clear instructions to apply the Callais ruling.
While there are no guarantees that Alabama’s now unlawful, court mandated roadblock will be removed in time, we have a responsibility to give our state a fighting chance to send seven republican members to Congress.
Control of the U.S. House of Representatives could come down to just a handful of seats, and when the dust settles, the people of Alabama will know that their Legislature stood firm, acted decisively, and did everything within its power to fight for fair representation.”
The special session caps a rapid escalation over the past 72 hours.
On Wednesday, Ivey tempered calls for a special session after the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision struck down Louisiana’s majority-minority congressional district in its ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.
By Thursday, Attorney General Steve Marshall had filed emergency motions in three redistricting cases — Allen v. Singleton, Allen v. Milligan, and Allen v. Caster — asking the Supreme Court to lift injunctions blocking Alabama from using its 2023 Legislature-drawn congressional map.
Marshall argued the injunctions cannot survive the Callais decision, which held that plaintiffs challenging a state’s map under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act cannot treat race and political affiliation as interchangeable.
“The Supreme Court has now made clear that you cannot assume race and politics are the same thing, you have to actually show they’re separate,” Marshall said. “Alabama deserves the right to use its own maps, just like every other state.”
Ivey signaled the shift Thursday when she applauded Marshall and Secretary of State Wes Allen on social media for filing the emergency motions.
The special session call follows a chorus of Alabama Republicans who urged immediate action after Wednesday’s ruling.
U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, and the far-and-beyond gubernatorial frontrunner in 2026, pushed hardest, telling Yellowhammer News and writing in a Fox News op-ed that Alabama, “should send an entire Republican delegation to Washington.”
Alabama Republican Party Chairman Scott Stadthagen applauded the decision, saying the ruling ‘reinforced what we have long argued — that redistricting should be guided by fair, constitutional principles and not driven by race.’
Alabama currently sends five Republicans and two Democrats, U.S. Reps. Shomari Figures (D-Mobile) and Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham), to the U.S. House under a 2023 court-imposed map from Allen v. Milligan, which forced Alabama to redraw its lines around race to manufacture a second Democrat-favoring district.
Ballots for the May 19 primaries are already set, with absentee voting underway.
Speaker Ledbetter and Pro Tem Gudger framed the session as preparation in case the legal timeline allows new maps to take effect before the general election.
Governor Ivey said she expects Legislature “to address this call in fast order and be completed within five days.”
“By calling the Legislature into a special session, I am ensuring Alabama is prepared should the courts act quickly enough to allow Alabama’s previously drawn congressional and state senate maps to be used during this election cycle. If the court-ordered injunction is lifted, Alabama would revert to the maps drawn by the Legislature for congressional districts in 2023 and state senate districts in 2021.
“During this special session, I have called on the Legislature to address legislation to provide for a special primary election for electing members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Alabama State Senate in districts whose boundary lines are altered by court action
“As I continue saying, Alabama knows our state, our people and our districts best.”
Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at [email protected].
