Lower court judges had ruled that the map, which redraws a majority-black district, was racially discriminatory.
Alabama asked the U.S. Supreme Court on May 27 to allow the state to use a congressional map that removed one of two black-majority districts.
The request came after a three-judge federal district court panel ordered Alabama the day before to continue using court-ordered districts from a 2024 map for elections to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Of the state’s seven congressional districts, five are currently held by Republicans, while two are held by Democrats.
Attorneys for black voters had argued that the new map—which would give Republicans a 6–1 advantage over Democrats—discriminated against black voters.
The panel’s ruling held that the newest redistricting plan was “tainted by intentional race-based discrimination.”
The new emergency application asks the justices to temporarily pause the panel’s ruling.
The state argues that there is a “fair prospect” that the Supreme Court will reverse the panel’s finding of “intentional discrimination.”
The panel’s decision comes out of a long-running dispute over how congressional district lines are drawn in Alabama.
After the 2020 U.S. Census, the Republican-controlled legislature drew a map that contained one majority-black district.
Black voters and activist groups sued, citing Section 2 nondiscrimination provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act, arguing that the map diluted minority voting power. The Supreme Court ruled 5–4 in Allen v. Milligan (2023) that the map violated the act and held that the state must create a second black-majority district.
However, in April, the Supreme Court in Louisiana v. Callais narrowed how Section 2 can be used to contest maps. The high court ruled that race may only be a minor factor in redistricting rationales, not the predominant, overriding reason for how congressional districts are drawn.
The Alabama Legislature then redrew the congressional map so it gave Republicans a 6–1 advantage over Democrats.
The Legislature said that map “doubled down on racially discriminatory vote dilution after we and the Supreme Court found that it was racially discriminatory vote dilution.”
