Federal Court Blocks Alabama’s Congressional Map Plans
A federal court has halted the Alabama Republican Party’s attempt to redraw the state’s congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
In a preliminary injunction issued by a three-judge panel, the judges stated that a proposed map favoring Republicans with six seats to only one for Democrats was “tainted with deliberate racial discrimination,” according to reports from the Associated Press.
“We see no path to allowing Alabamians to vote in the 2026 election under a districting plan that includes intentional racial bias,” the justices expressed.
This ruling follows a previous decision from several years ago that mandated the inclusion of two districts in the legislative map with a majority of Black voters.
In 2023, another three-judge panel found that maps created by the state’s Republican lawmakers deliberately diminished the voting power of Black citizens. Given that Alabama has a Black population of about 27%, it was concluded that two districts needed to be either majority Black or very close to it. The map established by the court was utilized in the 2024 elections.
Following a recent Supreme Court ruling regarding a similar case in Louisiana, Alabama officials sought to enforce the 2023 map. The conservative majority in the Supreme Court lifted the injunction preventing this map’s use and directed a three-judge panel to reconsider in light of the Louisiana case’s decision.
This panel comprised one judge appointed by former President Bill Clinton and two appointed by President Donald Trump.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall expressed his disappointment regarding the ruling, stating, “We will appeal this decision to the Supreme Court.”
Marshall added, “I’m disappointed, but not surprised that yet another three-judge panel rejected Alabama’s longstanding congressional map. We believe that nothing in the U.S. Supreme Court’s May 11 order supports this outcome. We will be appealing to the Supreme Court immediately.”
This ruling follows an April Supreme Court decision that annulled Louisiana’s race-based redistricting map.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito noted in the majority opinion, “Section II of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aims to uphold the Constitution, not contradict it. Unfortunately, lower courts sometimes interpret our Article II precedents in ways that compel states to discriminate based on race, which the Constitution prohibits.”
