Supreme Court lets Alabama use GOP-friendly map that eliminates a majority-Black district for 2026 midterms

The ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday night allowed Alabama to use a Republican-backed congressional map for the 2026 midterm elections, blocking a lower court ruling that found the plan intentionally discriminated against Black voters. The justices divided 6-3 along ideological lines, with the court's three liberal justices dissenting. The unsigned order from the conservative majority said the lower court erred in its analysis and failed to "heed the presumption of legislative good faith" when it interpreted the state's refusal to create a second largely minority district as proof of discriminatory intent.

Now the Court is squarely faced with a record of the turmoil it has caused and the harm it has wrought. Yet just as Alabama doubled down on racial discrimination, the Court today doubles down on chaos.

The map

The map, originally adopted by Alabama's GOP-led legislature in 2023, contains just one majority-Black district out of seven, down from two. It is likely to give Republicans a 6-1 advantage in Alabama's House delegation, compared to the current 5-2 split, by dramatically altering the district held by Democratic Representative Shomari Figures. The plan eliminates one of the state's two Democratic-leaning districts.

Legal background

The ruling is the most consequential development since the Supreme Court's landmark April decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which severely weakened the 1965 Voting Rights Act by making it nearly impossible to win claims without proving intentional discrimination. After that ruling, Alabama postponed its primaries and sought to revive the 2023 map. On May 26, a federal three-judge panel blocked the map, writing that it could not "see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination."

Worse still, voters will be forced to vote under a court-drawn racially gerrymandered map that does not meet Alabama's legitimate districting goals.

Broader redistricting push

The Alabama case is part of a new and frenzied round of congressional redistricting unfolding across the South, as Republican-led states scramble to take advantage of the April Supreme Court decision. The redistricting arms race has consumed the battle for the House over the last year in states across the country, with Republicans seeking to hold on to their slim majority in the November midterms.

Impact on midterms

With Republicans defending narrow majorities in both the House and Senate, every single congressional seat could prove decisive. The Supreme Court's intervention comes a day before an important deadline that Republican Governor Kay Ivey had already extended for the state to use the map in special primary elections in August. Black voters typically support Democratic candidates, and the elimination of a majority-Black district removes a reliably Democratic seat from the map.