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Supreme Court Clears Alabama GOP Map Cutting Majority-Black Districts

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The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for Alabama to move toward using a congressional map that eliminates one of the state’s two majority-Black districts, a shift that could give Republicans an additional U.S. House seat as soon as this year’s midterm elections cnn +1. In a 6–3 split along ideological lines, the justices vacated lower-court rulings that had blocked the GOP-drawn 2023 map as discriminatory and sent the case back for reconsideration under a newly narrowed Voting Rights Act standard washingtonpost +1.

The unsigned, one-paragraph order, issued May 11, instructed a three-judge federal panel to revisit its decision in light of the Court’s April ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which made it harder for minority voters to force the creation of additional “opportunity” districts under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act washingtonpost. Alabama’s seven-seat delegation is currently 5 Republicans and 2 Democrats, both Democrats elected from districts drawn by a court after the Supreme Court’s 2023 Allen v. Milligan decision found the state had diluted Black voting power cnn +1.

How a One-Page Order Could Reshape Alabama’s Map

Alabama’s 2023 map creates just one majority-Black district in a state where Black residents make up more than a quarter of the population, and would likely make six of seven districts safely Republican cnn +1. Under the court-imposed map used in 2024, two districts where Black voters could elect their candidates of choice sent Democrats to Congress; those seats are now at risk if the legislature’s plan is reinstated democracydocket.

The state’s Republican leaders argued the 2023 lines were driven by “neutral goals,” such as protecting incumbents, and should be reassessed using the Callais framework, which narrowed when race must be considered in drawing districts washingtonpost. Governor Kay Ivey had already signed contingency legislation on May 8 authorizing special primaries and revised election calendars if courts allowed a new map, saying “Alabama knows our state, people and districts best” al.

Voting Rights Act Under Strain and the Fight Over One Seat

Civil rights groups and the Court’s three liberal justices warned the order would both weaken protections for Black voters and sow confusion ahead of Alabama’s May 19 primary scotusblog +1. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissent joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said the majority “unceremoniously discards” a lower court’s detailed finding that Alabama acted with discriminatory intent and predicted the ruling “will cause only confusion as Alabamians begin to vote in the elections scheduled for next week” washingtonpost +1.

Nationally, analysts said restoring the 2023 map would likely net Republicans one additional Alabama seat, a modest but potentially pivotal gain in a closely divided House nbcnews +1. The order also signaled how the Court’s recent Voting Rights Act decisions are encouraging Republican-led legislatures in Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and elsewhere to pursue mid-decade redistricting drives aimed at consolidating partisan advantage and reducing the number of Black-opportunity districts across the South democracydocket.

The Bigger Picture

The Alabama order underscored how a series of terse Supreme Court interventions, layered on top of broader rulings like Callais, is shifting power over redistricting back to state legislatures and away from federal courts. With litigation still pending in lower courts and primary dates already on the calendar, the outcome in Alabama remains fluid—but the decision marked another step in a rapid rebalancing of voting-rights law that could shape who holds the House of Representatives for years to come cnn +1.