The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed Alabama to use a redrawn congressional map that eliminates one of the state's two majority-Black districts, issuing a 6-3 decision that represents a significant victory for Republicans and a setback for Black voters.
The ruling permits Alabama to implement its 2023 map in the upcoming midterm elections. A lower court had previously determined that this map was intentionally drawn to discriminate against Black voters and violated the Voting Rights Act. A three-judge panel had rejected the map and ordered a special master to redraw it, which resulted in two majority-Black districts. The panel also issued an injunction preventing Alabama from using another map until after the 2030 census.
Despite these findings, the Supreme Court's majority lifted the injunction without providing any explanation for its decision. The three liberal justices dissented strongly. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the court had "unceremoniously discards the District Court's meticulously documented and supported discriminatory-intent finding" without sound basis. She noted that "the record showed that Alabama made an intentional choice to perpetuate and entrench, rather than remedy and uproot, the racial discrimination."
Under the reinstated map, Alabama will have five congressional districts represented by white Republicans and two represented by Black Democrats. Notably, the new map eliminates the seat held by Representative Shomari Figures, which stretched from Mobile through the state's Black Belt, and replaces it with a Republican district.
The Supreme Court's decision comes just days after the same court gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in a case involving Louisiana's congressional districts. Alabama quickly returned to the Supreme Court following that ruling to request removal of the injunction, which the court granted on Monday.
The decision reflects an aggressive approach by the court's conservative majority in allowing Republican-controlled states to redraw districts that reduce the influence of Black voters. In the past, the Supreme Court has generally refused to overturn election rules on the eve of elections. However, the court has now abandoned this principle in both the Louisiana case, where it issued its decision while voting was underway, and in Alabama.
Republicans in other states have moved quickly to capitalize on this development. Tennessee, Louisiana, and South Carolina have all begun efforts to implement new maps designed to boost Republican electoral chances in the upcoming elections.
The Alabama primary was originally scheduled for May 19, but Republicans passed legislation last week moving the date in anticipation of the Supreme Court's action. The new map will shape how Alabama's voters are grouped and represented in the House of Representatives for the current election cycle.