SCOTUS Overturns Lower Court Block, Clears Alabama’s 2023 Congressional Map for 2026 Midterms

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Supreme Court has reinstated Alabama’s 2023 congressional district map for the 2026 elections, overturning a lower court injunction that blocked the Republican-favored plan.

In an unsigned order, the Court vacated the three-judge panel’s ruling and remanded the case for reconsideration under its April 2026 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which limited race-based claims under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

The 2023 map, drawn by Alabama’s Republican legislature, maintains one majority-Black district and is expected to produce six Republican seats and one Democratic seat in the state’s seven-district delegation. A lower court had ruled the map was “tainted by intentional race-based discrimination.”

The Supreme Court’s order stated it granted the stay and vacated the injunction “in light of Louisiana v. Callais.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Sotomayor argued there was “no reason” to send the case back, noting the lower court also found intentional discrimination under the Fourteenth Amendment independent of the Callais issues.

This ruling continues the Court’s post-Callais shift, emphasizing that Section 2 does not require proportional racial representation or race-based map drawing. It allows Alabama to proceed with the 2023 boundaries, avoiding a court-drawn alternative that would have created two majority-Black districts.