A panel of federal judges on Tuesday rejected Alabama’s effort to use a new voting map for the November midterm elections, saying that the districts discriminated against Black people and could not be used so shortly before a vote.
The state is likely to appeal the decision directly to the Supreme Court, which last month ruled that a Louisiana congressional map drawn to create two majority-Black House districts was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, has already set special primaries in August in four House districts that would be affected by her state’s new congressional map.
The ruling further confuses the electoral landscape across the South, as Republican-led legislatures have raced to implement new district lines after the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It also demonstrates how the ruling from the nation’s highest court has further muddled how lower courts interpret the landmark civil rights law.
If the case makes it to the Supreme Court, it will be the first major test of the high court’s new standard for challenging congressional maps under the Voting Rights Act. In its order, the three federal judges made clear that they had reviewed the arguments through the lens of the Supreme Court’s so-called Callais ruling last month but maintained that the state’s map intentionally discriminated against Black voters.
“We cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the panel of three judges wrote in a lengthy ruling. It also warned against causing voters additional confusion by trying to use a new map before the November elections.
The court, the panel wrote, was “painfully aware of the gravity of our ruling.” But, it added, “we do not find the issue particularly complex or close.”
The decision was issued by Judge Stanley Marcus, who was nominated to the bench by former President Bill Clinton; and by Judges Anna M. Manasco and Terry F. Moorer, both named to their posts by President Trump. (Judge Marcus typically sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta.)
And while the decision was carefully tailored to apply only to specific questions about the redistricting procedures in Alabama, the whiplash in the state could ripple outward. State senators in South Carolina on Tuesday plan to continue to debate a new congressional map that could eliminate the last majority-Black district in the state, even as early voting begins.
“It may be a cautionary tale about the procedural complexity in trying to force a map through when votes are being cast,” said Kareem Crayton, a vice president at the Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy center dedicated to voting and democracy.
Spokesmen for the Alabama governor and the attorney general did not immediately return requests for comment.
Alabama has been tangled in litigation over its congressional map for years and had been barred from redistricting until after the 2030 census. Black voters have argued that the state has unfairly undercut their power at the ballot box. More than one in four residents of Alabama are Black.
But in June 2023, the court stunned many legal watchers by siding with the argument that Alabama had violated the Voting Rights Act and needed to draw a second district with a majority of Black voters or come “close to it.”
Shortly after, lawmakers returned to Montgomery, the state capital, and drew a new map. But wary of pitting incumbent Republicans against one another, the legislature approved a map that increased the percentage of Black voters in one district to about 40 percent, from about 30 percent.
A panel of federal judges struck down that map and ordered an independent special master to draw district lines. The master’s map was used in 2024, paving the way for the election of Representative Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat. It was the first time in state history that Alabama had sent two Black lawmakers to the House at the same time. And it was this map that the federal court said should remain in place for the November elections.
“This is a significant step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go before this fight is settled,” said Mr. Figures in a statement on Tuesday morning.
But after last month’s Supreme Court decision rejecting Louisiana’s congressional map, Republicans in Southern states saw an opportunity to redraw districts that had core blocs of Black voters who repeatedly elected Democrats, adding to an ongoing gerrymandering battle launched by President Trump and his allies in Texas.
In Alabama, state officials instead pushed to use the 2023 map, a move the Supreme Court cleared the path for earlier this month. However, it still left the decision up to the federal panel of judges, the same one that rejected the congressional map.
Nick Corasaniti and Abbie VanSickle contributed reporting.
