The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Alabama to wipe away one of its two majority black congressional districts in this year’s elections.
The 6-3 ruling approved an emergency bid by Republican state officials to use the map, according to NBC News.
“Tonight’s decision is a major victory for Alabama and for the principle of self-governance,” state Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement.
“The United States Supreme Court confirmed what we always knew: that Alabama’s Congressional maps are constitutional and lawful under the Voting Rights Act,” he said.
The order said the lower court that had ruled against the state “failed to follow our instruction in Callais that the mere fact that voters of different races vote for different parties is not relevant to proving racially polarized voting patterns.”
Louisiana v. Callais was the court decision that freed Louisiana from Voting Rights Act constraints in drawing the boundaries of congressional districts.
“The State has also made a strong showing of irreparable harm and that the equities and public interest favor it,” the ruling said.
“We have repeatedly cautioned that lower federal courts should not ‘alter the election rules on the eve of an election,’” the order continued.
“Here, the District Court interposed itself into Alabama’s ongoing efforts to conduct its imminent 2026 congressional elections under maps that its elected representatives selected. Its view that conducting the elections under court-imposed maps would be more convenient for the State was not a valid justification for that intervention,” the ruling said.
“While federal courts should not impose changes close to an election, ibid., States are free to decide for themselves whether last-minute changes to an election are in their best interests.”
In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the majority did just that, adding that the ruling “disregards both democratic values and the rule of law.”
As noted by SCOTUSBlog, the road to the ruling began in 2021, when Alabama redrew district boundaries in response to the 2020 Census.
Civil rights advocates sued, saying the power of black voters was diluted, which violated the Voting Rights Act. Alabama went back to the drawing board in 2023, but lost a court ruling to implement that map, which is the one the Supreme Court allowed to be implemented on Tuesday.
But the Louisiana decision changed everything, the state argued.
Alabama Solicitor General A. Barrett Bowdre said that ruling “vindicates Alabama’s position on the lawfulness of the 2023 Plan, yet the district court decided in one week that Callais changed nothing.”
Challengers to the appeal to the Supreme Court said it was too late to change the maps.
Alabama’s primaries had initially been scheduled for May 19, but will not take place until Aug. 11.
The NAACP was livid that the state is able to move forward.
“The Supreme Court continues to unleash chaos in our democratic process, and with this latest action, gives Alabama approval to use a congressional map that had previously been found to be intentionally discriminatory,” Kristen Clarke, its general counsel, said in a statement.
“This is a Court that is stripping Black voters of power and voice at a speed that would put Jim Crow jurists to shame. Our message to communities remains the same — the best way to express dissent is by showing up at the ballot box this election season,” she said.
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