Supreme Court halts order for Alabama to use US House map with 2 largely
Black districts
[May 12, 2026]
By DAVID A. LIEB, KIM CHANDLER and MARK SHERMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday set the stage for
Alabama to eliminate one of two largely Black congressional districts
before this year’s midterm elections, creating an opening for
Republicans to gain an additional U.S. House seat in a partisan battle
for control of the closely divided chamber.
The decision follows a Supreme Court ruling in April that struck down a
majority-Black U.S. House district in Louisiana as an unconstitutional
racial gerrymander, significantly weakening a provision of the federal
Voting Rights Act.
Alabama officials had pointed to the Louisiana case as reason for the
Supreme Court to end a judicial order to use a court-imposed House map
until after the 2030 census. The high court on Monday overturned that
order and directed a lower court to reconsider the case in light of the
Louisiana decision. That could free the state to instead use a map
approved in 2023 by the Republican-led legislature that includes only
one district where Black residents comprise a majority.
Anticipating a court reversal, Alabama officials recently enacted a law
allowing it to void the results of a May 19 primary for some
congressional districts and instead hold a new primary under the revised
district boundaries. Alabama had asked for an expedited decision ahead
of the primary.
Alabama Republicans praised the decision.
“Today, the Supreme Court vindicated the state’s long-held position.
Now, the power to draw Alabama’s maps goes back to the people’s elected
representatives. That’s our Legislature,” Alabama Attorney General Steve
Marshall said in a video statement. Marshall said his job was “to put
the legislature in the best possible legal position to draw a
congressional map that favors Republicans seven-to-zero.” He concluded
with the statement, “Stay tuned.”
Republican House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter called the decision “a
massive victory not just for Alabama, but for conservatives across the
country.”
In a dissent to Monday's brief ruling, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the
Louisiana case had reversed only one of the grounds upon which the
Alabama case had been decided. Although the Voting Rights Act violation
is gone, Sotomayor said a lower court could still find that Alabama had
intentionally discriminated against Black voters in violation of the
14th Amendment.
The decision was a setback for Black residents and groups that had waged
a legal fight for several years to get a second Alabama congressional
district where Black voters had an opportunity to elect a candidate of
their choice.
“We are witnessing a return to Jim Crow. And anybody who is alarmed by
these developments — as everybody should be — better be making a plan to
vote in November to put an end to this madness while we still can,"
NAACP National President Derrick Johnson said in a statement.
Deuel Ross, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorney who argued the Alabama
case, said, "We will consider all of our options to fight to protect the
rights of these voters and keep the court ordered map in place.”
Shalela Dowdy, a plaintiff in the Alabama redistricting case, said she
was disappointed in the decision.
“For me, I feel like this is a step backwards towards the Jim Crow era
for congressional representation. The state is not going to stop here,”
Dowdy said, predicting Alabama will eventually go after the remaining
district.
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A demonstrator holds up a sign outside the Alabama Statehouse in
Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday, May, 7 2026. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
Primaries are just a week away
The decision comes a week ahead of the May 19 primaries, setting up
a potentially confusing scenario for voters. Alabama lawmakers last
week approved legislation to allow special primaries in four
impacted congressional districts if the state is able to switch
maps. The special elections would be set by the governor.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen called the decision a “historic
win for Alabama voters.” Allen said the May 19 primaries will
proceed as scheduled and his office will remain in close contact
with the governor’s office "as this situation continues developing.”
The change would give Republicans a chance to reclaim the district
now represented by Rep. Shomari Figures, a Democrat. Figures was
elected in 2024 under the court-ordered map. His election gave the
state — where Black residents comprise more than one quarter of the
population — two Black representatives in its congressional
delegation for the first time in history.
Figures called the Supreme Court action an “incredibly unfortunate
decision” that “sets the stage for Alabama to go back to the 1950s
and '60s in terms of Black political representation in the state.”
Alabama is one of several states trying to change their
congressional district boundaries before the November elections as
part of a nationwide redistricting battle being won, so far, by
Republicans.
Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, immediately
after a census, to account for population changes. But President
Donald Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw
congressional districts to their advantage in a bid to hold onto a
narrow House majority in the midterm elections.
Democrats in California countered with their own redistricting. And
numerous Republican-led states have followed. The high court’s
Louisiana ruling provided fuel for Republicans to intensify their
redistricting efforts.
So far, Republicans think they could win as many as 14 additional
seats in the November elections from new districts enacted in Texas,
Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida and Tennessee. Democrats
think they could win up to six additional seats from new districts
in California and Utah. But Democrats suffered a major setback when
the Virginia Supreme Cour t overturned a voter-approved
redistricting amendment that could have yielded four more seats for
the party.
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Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri, and Chandler from
Montgomery, Alabama.
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