The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Alabama to use a congressional map favoring Republicans in this year’s elections, blocking a lower court ruling that the redistricting plan intentionally discriminates against Black people.
The justices granted the state’s emergency appeal to use a map it adopted three years ago that has a majority-Black population in just one of its seven congressional districts.
The high-court order is the latest development in a redistricting frenzy that is part of a broader push by President Donald Trump to try to hold on to Republicans’ slim House majority in the November elections. It comes a day before an important deadline that Republican Gov. Kay Ivey had already extended in the state’s desire to use the map in special primary elections in August.
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The state’s Republican leadership went to the Supreme Court last week, the day after a three-judge court refused to let the state use its preferred map.
The lower court had ordered Alabama to use the same court-drawn map it used in the 2024 elections that sent two Black Democrats to Congress. Black residents comprise a majority or close to it in two of the state’s seven congressional districts.
Attorney General Steve Marshall told the court that the state did not intentionally discriminate against Black residents and should be allowed to hold elections this year under a map chosen by lawmakers, not judges.
The appeal is the latest development in the fallout from last month’s Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Black-majority district in Louisiana and weakened the federal Voting Rights Act. That ruling has led Republicans in several Southern states, including Alabama, to take steps to reshape voting districts with large minority populations that have elected Democrats.
