Supreme court approves Alabama map that erases majority-Black district

Alabama can use a redrawn congressional map that eliminates one of the state’s two majority-Black districts in this year’s midterm elections, the US supreme court ruled in a 6-3 decision on Tuesday, another major blow to Black voters and a win for Republicans.

The court’s emergency ruling is the most consequential decision it had issued since its landmark ruling in late April that struck down a critical provision of the Voting Rights Act. In that case, Louisiana v Callais, the court’s majority made it nearly impossible to win Voting Rights Act claims, saying that plaintiffs had to prove intentional discrimination. But on 26 May, a three-judge panel said the map Alabama wants to use for this year’s midterm was enacted with discriminatory intent.

The court’s emergency ruling is the latest development in a long legal battle over Alabama’s congressional map. After the 2020 census, Alabama enacted a congressional plan that had six Republican districts and one Democratic one. The Democratic district was the only majority-Black district in the state.

Black voters sued the state over the map, saying the plan violated the Voting Rights Act and unlawfully diluted the influence of Black voters. A three-judge panel agreed with that argument and ordered the state to produce a new map “to include two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it”. In a 5-4 decision in 2023, the supreme court upheld the court’s decision.

When Alabama Republicans went to redraw the map in 2023, they passed a plan that did not comply with the court’s order. The map they sought to implement again only had one majority-Black district. The court blocked that map, saying it was drawn with discriminatory intent, and appointed a special master to draw a new congressional plan. That plan, which had two majority-Black districts, was used in the 2024 election. Both districts elected Black Democrats.

After the supreme court’s decision in Callais, Alabama took the extraordinary step of moving its fast approaching primaries and sought to again implement the 2023 map. The three-judge panel again blocked that map on 26 May, saying: “We cannot 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.”