Supreme Court Clears Alabama GOP Map With One Black-Majority District

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Alabama to proceed with a congressional map drawn by its Republican legislature, one that creates only a single district where Black voters hold a majority. The 6-3 emergency order overturned a lower court decision that had found the map intentionally diluted Black voting strength and had required two such districts instead. The three liberal justices dissented.

The ruling means Alabama will use the 2023 map for special primary elections this August and for the November midterms. That map is expected to produce a 6-1 Republican advantage in the state’s seven House seats. The previous court-drawn alternative, used in 2024, created two districts where Black voters could reliably elect their preferred candidates and resulted in the election of two Black Democrats.

The legal fight centers on how states must comply with the Voting Rights Act when drawing districts. Alabama’s Black population is large enough to support two majority-Black districts under traditional redistricting criteria, according to earlier court findings. Republican lawmakers rejected that approach after the 2020 census, arguing that race-conscious line drawing violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause. The Supreme Court’s order effectively accepts that position for this election cycle while litigation continues.

The decision follows a pattern in which the Court has narrowed the reach of the Voting Rights Act in recent years. Last month the justices vacated a lower court ruling blocking Alabama’s map and sent the case back for further review. When the three-judge panel again blocked the map last week, Alabama sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court. The Court granted it, citing the presumption of legislative good faith and noting that the state’s refusal to follow a now-vacated remedial order could not itself prove discriminatory intent.

For Democrats and civil rights groups, the practical result is clear: a map that reduces the number of seats Black voters can influence from two to one. Black Alabamians make up roughly 27 percent of the state’s population. Concentrating most of them into a single district leaves the remaining six districts with smaller Black populations, making it harder for those voters to affect outcomes in competitive areas. Republicans have defended the map as color-blind and geographically compact.

The case is one of several redistricting disputes nationwide that will shape the 2026 midterms. With House control already narrow, even small shifts in district lines can determine which party holds the majority. Alabama’s map adds to a set of structural advantages Republicans currently enjoy in the House map, including the way population is distributed across states and the tendency of Democratic voters to cluster in urban areas.

Lower courts had previously concluded that Alabama’s map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting Black voting power. The Supreme Court’s intervention prevents that finding from taking effect before the election. Full briefing on the merits is still ahead, but Tuesday’s order ensures the Republican-drawn lines will be in place when voters go to the polls.