The nation’s highest court handed down a ruling Monday that sent shockwaves through redistricting battles unfolding across the South — and Republican lawmakers in Alabama wasted no time seizing the opportunity it created.
The Supreme Court cleared the path for Alabama to move forward with a congressional redistricting effort that could strengthen Republican prospects in two Democrat-held districts before the 2026 midterm elections.
In a 6-3 order, the high court vacated a series of lower court rulings that had effectively forced the state to use a congressional map containing two majority-minority districts.
Rather than settling the dispute outright, the Supreme Court sent the issue back to lower courts, instructing them to reconsider the cases under the legal framework established in Louisiana v. Callais, a 2026 ruling involving the interpretation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
In that earlier landmark case, Justice Samuel Alito held that a Louisiana congressional map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, and ruled that plaintiffs challenging legislative maps for racial discrimination under Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act must now demonstrate that lawmakers acted with intentional discrimination — a far higher legal bar than the previous standard of showing discriminatory effects.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who filed the emergency requests to the Supreme Court that helped trigger the swift action, declared the outcome a “major victory.”
He posted on social media: “For too long, unelected federal judges have had more say over Alabama’s elections than Alabama’s voters. That ended today. My job: put the Legislature in position to draw a map that favors Republicans 7-0. Done.”
Marshall had previously argued that “Alabama deserves the right to use its own maps, just like every other state.”
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen called the ruling a “historic win for Alabama voters” and confirmed that the May 19 primary election would proceed as scheduled.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
Sotomayor argued that the lower court’s finding that Alabama intentionally discriminated against Black voters should still stand regardless of the new Louisiana ruling, and warned the decision could generate confusion for voters with primaries approaching.
Sotomayor wrote: “Vacatur is thus inappropriate and will cause only confusion as Alabamians begin to vote in the elections scheduled for next week.”
Following the ruling, Gov. Kay Ivey swiftly called a special session to pursue changes to congressional and state senate district maps, even as voters had already begun casting absentee ballots in the May 19 primary.
Ivey announced that Alabama will hold a special primary election for four of its seven congressional districts as a result of the court’s action, stating: “Alabamians now have another opportunity to send strong voices to Washington to fight for our values, and I encourage them to get out and vote in this special primary election on August 11.”
Alabama’s current congressional delegation stands at five Republicans and two Democrats. The seats currently held by Democratic Reps. Terri Sewell and Shomari Figures could now be reshaped under the new maps.
Rep. Figures said the ruling “sets the stage for Alabama to go back to the 1950s and 60s in terms of Black political representation in the state” and vowed he was “not backing down.”
Monday’s order arrived amid a flurry of last-second redistricting activity across Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee, all of which are seeking to reconfigure currently Democrat-held congressional districts across the South.
Republicans believe they stand to gain as many as 14 additional House seats in November from new district maps enacted or under consideration in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, and Tennessee.
As of now, Republicans have built approximately an eight-seat advantage over Democrats in what has become an unprecedented midterm redistricting push.
Not every Republican-led state is charging ahead. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp stated his state will not redraw its maps before November, saying the Callais ruling “requires Georgia to adopt new electoral maps before the 2028 election cycle.”
Deuel Ross, director of litigation at the Legal Defense Fund, which represented the plaintiffs in the underlying Alabama case, said: “The Court’s decision interferes with the ongoing election and puts the validity of the votes of thousands of early voters into doubt. We will consider all of our options for protecting the rights of voters and reinstating the court ordered map.”
