Republicans in the southern state of Alabama have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to approve congressional election maps that were previously ruled racially discriminatory.
The state’s Republican leaders on Wednesday asked the high court to rule by Monday so the map can be used in the 2026 midterm elections.
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Previously, in 2023, the Supreme Court refused to overturn a lower court’s ruling that the map violated the ban on racial discrimination under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The law has long been one of the few limits on partisan redistricting, also known as gerrymandering.
Although there is currently no law prohibiting lawmakers from redesigning congressional maps to favor their party, the Voting Rights Act included a provision that prohibits politicians from limiting government representation based on race or minority status.
But last month, in Louisiana v. Calais, the U.S. Supreme Court weakened how the Voting Rights Act applies to redistricting cases.
States such as Alabama have since moved to reapply congressional maps that were previously repealed due to racial discrimination.
Promoting redistricting in Alabama
In the case of Alabama, a three-judge panel in 2023 found that the state’s Republican leadership had intentionally weakened the political power of black voters, who tend to lean Democratic.
The commission ruled that there should be two majority black districts in the state. One is the district that includes the city of Birmingham, and the other is the district that includes the state capital, Montgomery.
But the Alabama Republican Party argued in a court filing Wednesday that the panel’s ruling is no longer valid in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in April.
Instead, it called for restoring the rejected map in 2023, which would have consolidated most of the state’s black voters into a single district.
In their petition to the Supreme Court, Republican leaders argued that urgent action is needed to prevent “irreparable damage” to partisan redistricting efforts.
“Worse still, voters will be forced to vote under racist, court-drafted maps that do not meet Alabama’s legitimate redistricting goals,” they wrote.
If the rejected maps are restored, Gov. Kay Ivey has already indicated that new primaries would be held in four of the state’s seven congressional districts to reflect the new boundaries.
Voters in Alabama’s 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th Congressional Districts would have to cast their ballots again on August 11th under this plan, although primaries were already being held across the state on May 19th.
The winners of these primaries will then compete in the midterm elections in November.
But the Republican-led push to redraw the congressional maps hit a hurdle Tuesday when a lower court again struck down the 2023 map.
In a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Tuesday, the plaintiffs said, “The court saw through Alabama’s blatant attempt to reinstate a race-based congressional map intentionally enacted by Congress to deny black voters a voice in Congress.”
New map of the whole country
The battle for Alabama’s congressional districts mirrors the intense contest for control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November’s midterm elections.
Republicans control both houses of Congress by narrow margins. As a result, the results of a small number of elections could swing both chambers to the left or right.
Currently, there are 217 Republicans in the majority of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives.
Last year, in the run-up to the November midterm elections, Republican President Donald Trump began a push to corner his party’s lead.
In June 2025, reports began to emerge that President Trump had contacted Texas state legislators and encouraged them to pass a new congressional map that would concentrate voters to reduce the chances of a Democratic victory.
Redistricting typically occurs once every 10 years to reflect population changes as measured by the census.
But the Texas Republican Party’s decision to go ahead with Trump’s plan and redesign the state’s congressional maps has sparked redistricting battles across the country.
In August, Texas passed new maps drawn to give Republicans five more House seats in the midterm elections.
California, a Democratic stronghold, responded by offering voters a ballot initiative that would redesign congressional districts to increase the number of wins for left-wing candidates. The proposal was passed in November 2025.
Other states followed suit. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in April, Tennessee is moving to redraw its congressional maps to split Democratic districts that include the city of Memphis, and Louisiana’s Republican Party has also announced its intention to redraw its congressional maps.
But some states have rejected Trump’s midterm redistricting push. South Carolina, for example, implemented a redistricting plan earlier this week as early voting for the state’s party primary began.
However, Mr. Trump views the results of the midterm elections as an existential threat to his presidency.
“We have to win the midterm elections,” he told Republican leaders in January. “Because if we don’t win the midterm elections, they’re going to find a reason to impeach me.” “I will be impeached.”
