Supreme Court greenlights 11th-hour Alabama redistricting plan for 2026 election

By Jen Rice

FILE - An Alabama Senate committee discusses a proposal to draw new congressional district lines on July 20, 2023, in Montgomery, Ala. The Supreme Court’s decision last June siding with Black voters on a redistricting case in Alabama gave Democrats and voting rights activists a surprise opportunity ahead of the 2024 elections to have congressional maps redrawn in a handful of states. Fast forward three months and maps in Alabama and other states that could produce more districts represented by Black lawmakers still don’t exist. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler, File)

The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has allowed Alabama to select a different map for this year’s congressional elections in a stunning, last-minute move to interfere with another state primary election that has already begun.

The order means that Alabama will discard its court-ordered congressional map for the 2026 primary elections and use a 2023 map that courts previously struck down as a violation under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act instead.

Last month, SCOTUS issued its landmark ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which gutted the Voting Rights Act and made it much more difficult for minority voters to prove that electoral maps unlawfully dilute their voting power.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) responded by swiftly calling a special session in an attempt to change the maps for congressional and state senate districts — even though voters had already begun casting absentee ballots in the May 19 primary election. 

Alabama lawmakers raced to pass legislation authorizing a new election for those congressional and state senate seats, and state officials filed requests with SCOTUS asking the court to speedily lift the injunctions blocking the state from using its challenged map, which had been struck down by courts. 

Voting rights advocates challenging the map quickly filed their own briefs, asking SCOTUS not to rush through its decision.

Two Alabama congressional redistricting cases are currently pending before SCOTUS. 

A separate challenge to the state senate map is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The SCOTUS order does not affect the injunction on the state legislative map.