U.S. Supreme Court will allow Alabama to change Congressional districts

WASHINGTON, DC (WAKA) – The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for Alabama to adopt a new Congressional district map ahead of the 2026 elections, CBS News reports.

In a 6-3 decision, the court set aside lower court rulings that had blocked the state from using the map that had been drawn by the Alabama Legislature following the 202 Census. That map contained one majority-Black district, which is the District 7 seat that Democratic U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell holds.

The Supreme Court sent the cases back to the lower court for further proceedings in light of its landmark ruling last month involving the Congressional district in Louisiana that was struck down because the court said race was too big of a factor in how it was drawn up.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson were in dissent in today’s decision involving Alabama.

Sotomayor, joined by her two fellow liberal justices, wrote in a dissenting opinion that the move by the Supreme Court to toss out the district court’s decisions is “inappropriate and will cause only confusion as Alabamians begin to vote in the elections scheduled for next week.”

After the Legislature had passed the original map, the courts stepped in to redraw the map, saying Black Alabama voters should have a greater chance at electing a Black candidate. That map led to the election of Black Democrat Shomari Figures to the 2nd District in 2024.

Last week, the Alabama Legislature approved returning to the original map, which got the approval of Gov. Kay Ivey. That action was in anticipation of any U.S. Supreme Court action.

Congressman Shomari Figures released this statement tonight:

“This is an incredibly unfortunate decision by the Supreme Court that not only continues their trend of breaking from the norms and precedents set by the Court, but also sets the stage for Alabama to go back to the 1950s and 60s in terms of Black political representation in the state. The conservative justices on the Supreme Court just literally substituted themselves in to be the defense lawyers for the State of Alabama. The Court just gave the state the benefit of an argument the Supreme Court acknowledged just a week ago that the State did not even present in defending its maps.

“This Supreme Court did not dismiss the case, so the litigation will certainly continue. My hope is that this is a temporary setback and that three Republican-appointed judges will again find what they found the first time: that the State of Alabama intentionally discriminated against Black voters in drawing its congressional district lines.

“I ran for this seat to be a voice for all of Alabama, and I’m not backing down from that mission now. The fight must and will go on.

“Beyond the courts, we know what has to be done. We will organize, we will register, and we will turnout people in record numbers at the polls.”