A Supreme Court justice warned of “chaos” and “confusion” after Alabama won the right to redraw its congressional map in favor of Republicans.
In a 6-3 ruling on Monday, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority cleared the way for Alabama to use a 2023 congressional map that includes only one majority-Black district out of seven. The current House map includes a second majority-minority district in which nearly half the population is Black.
The map currently in use had been imposed by a federal court, which said the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 required the state to draw that second district, rather than use the map with only one majority-Black district.
Alabama’s congressional delegation consists of five White Republicans and two Black Democrats. GOP leaders had aimed to redraw electoral boundaries to eliminate one or both Democratic seats.
Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures was elected in 2024 under that new court-imposed map, but is now risks losing his seat.
While the conservative majority did not explain their reasoning, they stated that the lower court’s decision should be reconsidered after a ruling in the Louisiana v. Callais case last month that struck down a majority-Black House district as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, severely weakening the scope of the Voting Rights Act—which was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the height of the civil rights movement.
The decision in Atlanta was praised by Republicans, who now receive an edge in six of the state’s seven House districts, and the possibility of gaining an additional seat in the midterm elections after the ruling.
Attorney General Steve Marshall said the decision was a “major victory for the U.S. Supreme Court,” in a video statement posted to X.
“For too long, unelected federal judges have had more say over Alabama’s elections than Alabama voters. That ended today,” he added.
All of the Supreme Court’s liberal justices dissented from Monday’s order, including Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the 2023 map was the product of deliberate discrimination against Black voters.
“The Court today unceremoniously discards District Court’s meticulously documented and supported discriminatory-intent finding & careful remedial order without any sound basis for doing so and without regard for the confusion that will surely ensue,” Sotomayor said in her dissent.
Sotomayor said it was “inappropriate” for the court to alter Alabama’s district lines just days before the primary, noting it will “cause only confusion as Alabamians begin to vote in the elections scheduled for next week.”
Vacating a lower court decision “is an equitable remedy, and the Court should not lightly wield it to unleash chaos and to confuse voters,” Sotomayor added.
Under the law passed on Monday, results from next week’s May 19 primaries in House districts that are not impacted by the map change will still be counted, but those in affected districts will be ignored. Republican Gov. Kay Ivey is believed to be planning another round of primaries in those districts.
Alabama had been operating under an injunction that barred it from redrawing its current map before 2030—until Monday’s Supreme Court ruling.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the Supreme Court’s decision was “yet another hole punctured in the mirage” of fair representation in modern America.
“Week after week, the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court continues to dismantle civil rights, equal representation, and hard fought voting rights that have been around for decades,” Newsom said, via his press office account on X.
Accusing Republicans of “meddling in elections” after votes are already cast, Newsom added, “It’s simple: MAGA is silencing millions of people—it needs to be called out. It’s time we have a serious discussion in this country about court reform—from new ethics guidelines to term limits and more."
