Alabama officials filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court on Wednesday, requesting permission to use a Republican-drawn congressional map that a lower court recently blocked for intentionally discriminating against Black voters.
The state’s Republican leadership turned to the nation’s highest court just one day after a three-judge judicial panel rejected the state’s map. That map, originally adopted three years ago, features a majority-Black population in only one of Alabama’s seven congressional districts. Instead, the lower court judges ruled that Alabama must keep using a court-ordered map implemented for the 2024 elections, which establishes two districts where Black residents make up a majority or close to it.
This legal battle comes on the heels of a separate Supreme Court ruling last month that struck down a Black-majority district in Louisiana and weakened parts of the federal Voting Rights Act. Following that decision, Republicans across several Southern states have moved to reshape voting districts with large minority populations, which traditionally elect Democrats. The redistricting push lines up with a broader effort by President Donald Trump to preserve the Republican party’s majority in the House of Representatives this November.
Alabama’s specific legal dispute has been ongoing for several years. In 2023, the same three-judge panel determined that the map drawn by state Republicans intentionally diluted the voting power of Black citizens. Given that Alabama’s population is roughly 27% Black, the panel ruled the state should feature two districts where Black voters represent a majority or near-majority.
Following the Supreme Court’s recent Louisiana decision, Alabama officials attempted to reinstate their 2023 map. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority initially lifted the injunction blocking the state’s map and sent the case back to the three-judge panel to review it alongside the Louisiana ruling.
In the interim, Alabama voters cast ballots in the state’s May 11 primaries, and Republican Governor Kay Ivey scheduled new special primaries for August 11 across four districts affected by the shifting boundaries.
However, upon reviewing the case again, the three-judge panel stood by its original conclusion, stating there was “undisputed evidence” of intentional racial discrimination. The judges noted this specific finding was independent of and completely unaffected by the Supreme Court’s recent Voting Rights Act ruling. As a result, the panel ordered that the upcoming special congressional primaries must proceed under the court-approved districts rather than the state’s preferred map.
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