The Supreme Court is entering its final weeks, a period when justices typically race to complete their most significant rulings before the summer recess. The court has issued several consequential decisions as the term winds down, with more opinions expected in the coming days.
One of the most significant recent rulings came in a case involving Alabama's congressional map. In a 6-3 decision, the court's conservative majority allowed Alabama to use a redrawn map that eliminates one of the state's two majority-Black districts in upcoming midterm elections. The unsigned opinion marked another major blow to voting rights protections and represented a significant victory for Republicans.
The decision came after the court's landmark April ruling in Louisiana v Callais, which struck down a critical provision of the Voting Rights Act. In that case, the court made it nearly impossible to win voting rights claims by requiring plaintiffs to prove intentional discrimination. The Alabama ruling applied this new standard, reversing a lower court's May 26 decision that had blocked the state's map as intentionally discriminatory.
The court's conservative justices argued that the three-judge panel had failed to properly reconsider the case under the Callais decision and other recent rulings weakening the Voting Rights Act. They noted that the lower court had failed to give the legislature a presumption of good faith and had not properly evaluate whether an alternative map offered by plaintiffs could perform as well as the state's map on neutral redistricting criteria.
The three liberal justices issued a sharply worded dissent. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, accused the majority of causing chaos and abandoning the rule of law. She contrasted two paths forward: one with an orderly election under a map protecting Black voters' rights, and another with a chaotic election under a map intentionally discriminating against Black voters. "The majority chooses the second path and disregards both democratic values and the rule of law," Sotomayor wrote.
The ruling concluded a lengthy legal battle over Alabama's congressional map. After the 2020 census, Alabama created a plan with only one majority-Black district. Black voters challenged this, and courts previously ordered the state to create two majority-Black districts. When Alabama Republicans redrew the map in 2023, they again created only one majority-Black district. The court blocked that map and appointed a special master to draw a compliant plan with two majority-Black districts, which was used in the 2024 election.
Following the Callais decision, Alabama sought to reinstate its 2023 map, leading to the latest court battle. The Supreme Court's decision allows the state to proceed with its plan despite the lower court's finding of discriminatory intent.