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

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with Alabama Republicans in a 6-3 emergency ruling that revives a congressional map with only one majority-Black district, handing the GOP a clear advantage ahead of this year’s midterms. The decision overturns a lower court order that had required two districts where Black voters could elect their preferred candidates, effectively restoring a plan state lawmakers first adopted in 2023.

The three liberal justices dissented without a written opinion, leaving the conservative majority to greenlight the map just days before a deadline for special primaries set for August. Alabama’s Republican governor had already extended that deadline in anticipation of the high court’s intervention. Under the revived map, Black residents, who make up roughly 27 percent of the state’s population, hold a majority in just one of seven districts. The previous court-drawn plan used in 2024 produced two such districts and helped elect two Black Democrats.

The ruling marks the latest chapter in a redistricting fight that began after the 2020 census. Alabama’s legislature drew lines that concentrated Black voters into a single district while spreading others across Republican-leaning areas, a practice critics call packing and cracking. A three-judge federal panel initially found the map likely violated the Voting Rights Act by intentionally diluting Black voting power. That panel later ordered the state to keep using the court-drawn alternative with two opportunity districts.

Alabama’s Republican leaders appealed directly to the Supreme Court, arguing the lower court had wrongly inferred discriminatory intent from the state’s refusal to follow an earlier order that the justices themselves had vacated. The high court’s brief per curiam opinion accepted that argument and stressed a presumption of legislative good faith. It also noted that the state faces no obligation to comply with a remedial plan once vacated.

Voting rights advocates immediately condemned the outcome. They pointed to Alabama’s long record of resistance to minority voting gains, from the 1965 Voting Rights Act onward, and warned that the map will make it harder for Black voters to secure representation proportional to their numbers. The decision arrives amid a broader national effort by Republican-led states to lock in advantages through redistricting, a strategy that has preserved narrow GOP control of the House even when Democrats win more total votes nationwide.

Legal observers noted the ruling’s swift timeline. After the Supreme Court sent the case back for further review last month, the lower court again blocked the 2023 map. Alabama then sought emergency relief, and the justices acted within days. The conservative majority’s willingness to intervene at this stage, while declining to explain its reasoning at length, drew sharp contrast with the detailed dissents that typically accompany voting cases from the liberal wing.

The map now in place is expected to tilt the state’s delegation further toward Republicans, potentially flipping the south Alabama seat won by a Black Democrat in 2024. With primaries looming, candidates and voters must adjust to districts that political analysts say were drawn to minimize Black electoral influence. The decision underscores how control of the Supreme Court continues to shape the ground rules of American elections, often in ways that favor the party that appointed the majority of justices.