Supreme Court reinstates Republican-favored Alabama congressional districts

The U.S. Supreme Court Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for Alabama to use a congressional district map favored by Republicans. The court overturned a three-judge district court panel that found that the map is "tainted by intentional race-based discrimination." The ruling means that Alabama's 2026 midterm elections will feature six Republican-leaning districts and one Democratic-leaning one, as opposed to a map with only five safe Republican seats. Democrat Shomari Figures, who represents Alabama's Second District, will likely lose his seat as a result of the high court's ruling. The story of Alabama's congressional map is long and tortured. It began in 2021, when the state implemented a new map to account for population changes in the census. The map featured only one majority-black district out of seven, even though the state is more than one-quarter Black. Voters immediately sued, claiming the map illegally diluted minority votes in violation of the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution. Lower court judges agreed , ruling that the state must draw a map with two districts where Black voters have a realistic chance of electing their candidate of choice. The Supreme Court more than once has ordered Alabama to draw a compliant map. But the state has refused and instead continued to litigate the case. On Tuesday, that tactic paid off. …