Washington — Alabama Republicans asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to allow the state to use a congressional map, crafted in 2023, that would give the GOP an edge in the midterm elections, after a district court found that the redistricting plan was racially discriminatory.
State officials asked the high court for emergency relief on the heels of the district court’s decision that ordered Alabama to use a court-approved map that includes two majority-Black districts for upcoming House contests. The three-judge district court panel found that the redistricting plan adopted by Alabama’s GOP-controlled legislature in 2023, which has one majority-minority district, intentionally discriminated against Black voters.
“Alabama and the public face irreparable harm unless a stay issues because they will be unable to use the State’s ‘duly enacted plans’ for the 2026 election,” Alabama officials wrote in a filing. “Worse still, voters will be forced to vote under a court-drawn racially gerrymandered map that does not meet Alabama’s legitimate districting goals.”
They said the 2023 map “was lawful then, and it is lawful now.”
Alabama Republicans moved to revert back to the congressional lines drawn three years ago after the Supreme Court last month weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. For the 2024 elections in Alabama, House contests were conducted under a plan adopted by the district court, which included two majority-Black congressional districts.
But for the upcoming House elections, Republicans are hoping to flip one of those seats, currently held by Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat, by reimposing their 2023 map.
The ongoing battle over Alabama’s congressional map is part of the fallout from the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act decision. In response to that ruling, which involved Louisiana’s House district lines, several states in the South have rushed to reconfigure their congressional maps to help bolster Republicans’ odds of holding onto their House majority.
