The conservative majority granted Alabama's emergency appeal, allowing the state to use a 2023 map with a Black majority in only one of seven districts.
A federal three-judge panel ruled on May 26 that the Republican-backed map intentionally discriminated against Black voters and violated equal protection.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the ruling undermines democratic values and the rule of law, paving the way for a chaotic election.
Tennessee and Louisiana are also advancing maps that reduce Black-majority districts, while South Carolina Republicans broke ranks to preserve one.
Republicans hold a slim House majority. The Alabama map flips a Democratic-held seat, aiding Trump's party ahead of November elections.
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for Alabama to use a pro-Republican congressional map in the November midterm elections, granting the state's emergency appeal and halting a lower court ruling that had blocked the map for intentionally discriminating against Black voters. The decision is the latest turn in a redistricting battle unfolding across the American South, as Republican-led states rush to redraw district lines following an April Supreme Court ruling that severely weakened the Voting Rights Act.
Alabama Republicans sought to reinstate a map adopted in 2023 that contains a majority-Black population in just one of the state's seven congressional districts. A federal three-judge panel had blocked that map on May 26, finding it likely discriminated against Black voters and violated the US Constitution's equal protection guarantee. The lower court ordered Alabama to use a court-drawn map that had produced two Black Democratic representatives in the 2024 elections.
“The ruling paves the way for a chaotic election that intentionally discriminates against Black residents of Alabama.”
The Supreme Court's three liberal justices dissented. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the decision undermines both democratic values and the rule of law. The court's six conservative justices formed the majority that granted Alabama's request.
Alabama Republicans argued in their filing that voters would suffer irreparable harm if forced to use the lower court's map. They described the court-drawn alternative as a racially gerrymandered map that did not meet Alabama's legitimate districting goals. Lawyers for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, representing Black voters challenging the map, countered that states have no legitimate interest in furthering racial discrimination, especially through a map a court had already found to be a product of intentional discrimination.
“States have no legitimate interest in furthering racial discrimination, including by using a map that a court has found to be a product of intentional discrimination.”
The Alabama case is part of a wider, frenzied round of congressional redistricting across the South. Tennessee has already approved a new map that broke up a majority-Black, Democratic-held district based in Memphis. Louisiana is advancing a plan to eliminate one of two districts with sizable Black populations. In a rare break with Trump, several Republican state senators in South Carolina voted with Democrats on Tuesday to abandon a map aimed at dismantling the district held by Congressman James Clyburn, a Black Democrat first elected more than three decades ago.
Republicans are defending narrow majorities in both the House and Senate in the November midterms. The Alabama map is designed to flip a US House district currently held by a Black Democratic congressman to the Republicans. Governor Kay Ivey, a Republican, had already postponed special primary elections in four districts to August 11, anticipating a favorable Supreme Court ruling. The decision gives President Donald Trump's party a boost as it fights to maintain control of Congress.
The redistricting wave was triggered by an April Supreme Court decision that severely weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a landmark civil-rights-era law intended to prevent discrimination in voting. That ruling removed protections for districts shaped by Black and other minority populations, opening the door for Republican-led states to redraw maps with fewer constraints around fair representation for voters of color. Both parties have engaged in gerrymandering for decades, but the post-April environment has intensified the fight, with Democrats also redrawing maps in states they control, including California.
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The US Supreme Court's conservative majority allowed Alabama to use a congressional map that dismantles one of two districts where Black voters hold a majority, reversing a lower court that found the plan intentionally discriminatory.
AI text based on reports by Deutsche Welle, de Volkskrant, Reuters and other publishers. Published .