Court Battles

Supreme Court lifts block on Alabama Republicans’ map

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by Zach Schonfeld - 05/11/26 6:21 PM ET

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by Zach Schonfeld - 05/11/26 6:21 PM ET

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The Supreme Court on Monday wiped out a decision blocking Alabama Republicans’ congressional map, potentially allowing it to be used for the midterms in the wake of the justices’ recent blockbuster ruling narrowing the Voting Rights Act.

The design would remove one of Alabama’s two majority-Black districts and give Republicans a better shot at winning the seat held by Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures.

The order drew the public dissents of the court’s three liberal justices, who insist Republicans’ map should remain blocked for a standalone reason unaffected by the decision.

“Vacatur is thus inappropriate and will cause only confusion as Alabamians begin to vote in the elections scheduled for next week,” wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

No other justice publicly disclosed their vote or explained their decision.

It adds to the blitz of redistricting activity as states’ primaries fast approach and begin locking in their maps for this year’s elections. Earlier in the day, Virginia Democrats filed an emergency appeal hoping to restore their map.

The action in Alabama follows the Supreme Court’s blockbuster Voting Rights Act decision. The 6-3 ruling, which involved Louisiana’s map, narrowed a key tool groups have used for decades to force additional majority-minority districts.

As it paves the way for Louisiana Republicans to remove their second-majority Black district for the midterms, Alabama Republicans are hoping for a similar opportunity.

The state wants to revert to the map it passed in 2023 after the Supreme Court ruled a previous design with only one majority-Black district violated the Voting Rights Act.

The 2023 design still didn’t outright create a second one, so a panel of judges rejected it and imposed a court-ordered map that’s currently in effect. Alabama believes the justices’ recent decision changes the equation.

The Supreme Court has now given Alabama a chance to convince the lower judges by technically lifting their earlier decision and ordering them to take another look.

In dissent, the liberal justices said Republicans’ map should still remain blocked because the lower court invalidated it for a reason independent of the Voting Rights Act. It also held the state intentionally diluted Black voting strength in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Sotomayor chastised her colleagues for not making clear that finding should still stand.

“The Court today unceremoniously discards the District Court’s meticulously documented and supported discriminatory-intent finding and careful remedial order without any sound basis for doing so and without regard for the confusion that will surely ensue,” Sotomayor wrote.

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