Alabama officials filed a trio of petitions to the Supreme Court on Friday asking the justices to clear the way for the state to implement a redrawn congressional map ahead of the 2026 election.
The three petitions from Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall asked the high court on its emergency docket to allow its 2023 congressional map to take effect and to lift an injunction by a lower court that found the map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The 2023 congressional map included one black-majority district, for a 6-1 Republican-Democrat split of the state’s congressional seats, but a federal court had previously ordered the creation of a second black-majority district, giving the state’s congressional delegation a 5-2 Republican-Democrat split.
The filings argue the lower courts erred in forcing the state to draw a second black-majority congressional district in light of the high court’s ruling last week in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down Louisiana’s court-ordered second black-majority congressional district as unconstitutional.
“Alabama’s case mirrors Louisiana’s, and they should end the same way: with this year’s elections run with districts based on lawful policy goals, not race,” the petition said.
“Plaintiffs would have Alabama hold elections under a map that was erroneously ordered at best and unconstitutional at worst. Nothing requires that result. Americans, no less in Alabama, deserve a republic free of racial sorting now, and state officials deserve an opportunity to give it to them,” the petition said.
The emergency petitions ask the high court to rule on their request by May 14 at 10 a.m., ahead of the state’s currently scheduled primary elections on May 19. The Supreme Court requested a response from the groups suing the state over the congressional map by Monday at 5 p.m.
“I will continue to fight for Alabama to be able to use the congressional map the people’s elected representatives enacted,” Marshall said in a statement Friday. “Alabama drew a map based on lawful policy goals, not race, and the Supreme Court’s recent ruling vindicates that approach. We were punished for doing the right thing, and we are asking the Court to correct that now.”
Lawmakers in Alabama passed legislation this week that would delay the state’s congressional primaries if the officials are permitted to use the 2023 map rather than the current court-ordered map.
Alabama’s request to the Supreme Court comes as various GOP-led states, including Louisiana, Florida, and Tennessee, have rushed to redraw congressional maps after the high court’s April 29 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais rewrote the rules on what is needed to prove racial gerrymandering. The decision is expected to net Republicans several seats in the House in a year where control of the lower chamber of Congress will be hotly contested.
ALABAMA LEGISLATURE PASSES BILL DELAYING HOUSE PRIMARIES IF COURTS APPROVE REDISTRICTING
Democrats have attempted to counter Republicans’ mid-decade redistricting push, but faced a major setback Friday morning when the Virginia Supreme Court found state Democrats illegally rushed a redistricting referendum to voters last month.
The new Virginia congressional map, which voters narrowly approved in the now-voided referendum, would have redrawn districts to net Democrats up to four seats. Virginia Democrats have said they intend to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, but that appeal is unlikely to go anywhere because the high court can only review cases where there is a federal constitutional issue.
