In a 6-3 decision on Monday, the Supreme Court lifted lower-court injunctions that had blocked Alabama’s 2023 congressional maps and imposed court-drawn maps set to remain in place until after the 2030 Census. The unsigned majority order offered no explanation, instead vacating the lower court ruling and remanding the case back to the three-judge district court for reconsideration in light of Louisiana v. Callais. The decision opens a path for Republicans to pick up an additional U.S. House seat, as the 2023 map cuts two majority-Black congressional districts down to one, concentrating Black voters into the 7th Congressional District while diluting the percentage of Black voters in the 2nd Congressional District. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, joined by Kagan and Jackson, writing that the court “unceremoniously discards the district court’s meticulously documented and supported discriminatory-intent finding” and that nothing in Callais changes the lower court’s Fourteenth Amendment intentional-discrimination analysis. The Alabama Legislature had already wrapped up a special session on May 8, passing bills to reinstate the 2023 maps and authorize new special primaries in the affected districts – 1, 2, and 7 – with Gov. Ivey expected to set new primary dates before August.
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