Alabama urges US Supreme Court to let it eliminate a Democratic-held congressional district

Alabama sued Emergency appeal to the US Supreme Court Asking the justices on Friday to allow the state to return to a congressional map that includes a majority-Black district posed a potentially thorny question for the high court as the justices openly debate whether partisanship plays a role in redistricting decisions.

State officials sued the court late Friday, asking it to halt a lower court order blocking its use of a map it issued in 2023. The court did so based on a blockbuster decision last week on Louisiana’s congressional map that severely weakened the reach of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The objection, which requires a response by May 14, came just hours after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation allowing new U.S. House primaries if courts allow the state to use different congressional districts in this year’s elections.

“Alabama’s situation mirrors Louisiana’s and should end the same way: this year’s elections will be contested with districts based on legal policy goals, not race,” the state said in its emergency petition to the Supreme Court.

The court’s decision in the Louisiana case said voters challenging a potentially discriminatory map must demonstrate a “strong inference” of racial motivation to mount a successful challenge to the Voting Rights Act.

Voting rights groups and legal experts say that could be an impossibly high hurdle to clear. Alabama is one of the GOP-led states that switched to immediate redistricting.

Alabama’s call puts conservative judges in a difficult position.

Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the 6-3 conservative majority, emphasized that the Louisiana case did not overturn a decision that, in just three years, produced an earlier version of the Alabama map that included a single majority-Black district. Court liberals, led by Justice Elena Kagan, argued that the court’s decision last week did just that.

“Now, Alabama is basically asking the court to prove that Justice Kagan’s dissent is true. That puts the court, particularly Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh, in a pretty tough spot,” said Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at Georgetown University Law Center.

The new call also comes just days after Alito and liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. exchanged barbs about how quickly It could redraw the map of Louisiana. Jackson accused the court of violating its “principles” in an attempt to influence the November election. Alito responded by calling it “insulting.” The conservative judge said Jackson’s dissent led to “trivial” and “unfounded” arguments.

But on Wednesday the Chief Justice john roberts He lamented what he described as a widespread misunderstanding of the Supreme Court’s work and pushed back against criticism that many of the court’s most high-profile cases have resulted in conservative outcomes.

“People think we make policy decisions,” Roberts said at a conference with lawyers and judges in Hershey, Pennsylvania, when asked what he thought Americans misunderstood most about the institution he has led for more than two decades.

“I think they see us as truly political actors,” Roberts said, “which I don’t think is an accurate understanding of what we do.”

But Vladeck said: “In the same week that the chief justice was publicly trying to distance himself from accusations that the court was acting politically, here is Alabama asking him to do exactly that.”

Southern states are advancing rapidly

Some states in the South are moving quickly to redraw their maps in light of the Supreme Court decision in an effort to give Republicans an advantage in this year’s midterm elections.

Tennessee goes into effect New congressional districts on Thursday A Democrat-controlled, majority-black district in Memphis. The state’s Democratic Party filed a lawsuit Friday to prevent the districts from being used until after this year’s elections because of the limited time frame.

The move came on the same day Virginia Supreme Court deals big blow to Democrats by defeating a redistricting plan that could have helped them win four more seats in the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers in Louisiana and South Carolina have also introduced congressional redistricting plans that face fierce opposition from civil rights activists and Democrats.

Since President Donald Trump encouraged Texas to redraw congressional districts last summer, Republicans think they could win up to 14 seats from new districts in many states, while Democrats think they could win up to six seats. However, gerrymandering can backfire in some highly competitive areas because the parties may not get everything they are looking for.

In Alabama, the new law would allow the state to revert to its primary map if federal courts allow it to use the previous map. An earlier version of the map was reviewed by the Supreme Court in 2023 and judges ask state to try again. The state did so, but its new map also included only a majority-black district.

The state voted in 2024 on a court-drawn map that included two districts where Black voters had the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.

Demonstrators outside the Alabama statehouse on Friday shouted “fight for democracy” and “Fuck white supremacy.”

“I was out there marching for the right to vote in 1965, and now we’re here in 2026 to do the same thing,” attorney Betty White Boynton said.

Republican state Sen. Greg Albritton said the special primary would only happen if the courts agree to lift the injunction that kept a court-selected map in place until after the 2030 Census.

“This bill will have no effect unless a court decision is made,” Albritton said.

The court order required a second district with or near a majority of Black voters, resulting in the 2024 election of Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures, who is Black. If the court lifts the injunction, Republican officials want to enforce a map lawmakers drew in 2023 and was rejected by a federal court. This map will allow them to retake the Figures region.

Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, a Black Democrat, said Republicans aim to eliminate representation from Black voters in an effort to get another Republican in Congress.

“We’ve only been voting since 1965, and now you’re trying to take that voice away from us,” Singleton said.

The high court requested a response to Alabama’s petition by 5 p.m. ET on Monday.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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