mid-decade redistricting

Court Rules Alabama Must Use Court-Drawn Map for 2026

By EditorMay 26, 2026

A federal three-judge panel has once again blocked Alabama from using its 2023 congressional map, ordering the state to use a race-blind court-drawn plan for its 2026 elections. The court ordered Secretary of State Wes Allen to administer Alabama's remaining 2026 congressional elections, including the August special primaries, using the map previously imposed by the court, which created a second district where Black voters have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. The ruling came after the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the court's earlier permanent injunction and ordered the panel to reconsider in light of Louisiana v. Callais. The…

AlabamaAlabama, caseupdates, mid-decade redistricting

South Carolina Mid-Decade Redistricting Is Dead. For Now

By EditorMay 26, 2026

The Republican-led South Carolina Senate voted Tuesday against advancing a new congressional map, ending the redistricting effort in the state for now. Twelve Republicans joined with Senate Democrats to vote for a motion to kill the legislative effort to redraw South Carolina's seven congressional districts. The vote was 20-24 against a motion to force a final vote on the bill/map. The high-profile push came to an abrupt end as South Carolina state senators adjourned the special session, backing away from changes to district lines amid surging early voting across the state. Lawmakers spent roughly three hours at the State House…

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Utah’s Court-Ordered Redistricting: Where Things Stand

By EditorMay 22, 2026

The Utah congressional map controversy continues into 2026. On November 10, 2025, a state trial court invalidated the Utah legislature's congressional map on the grounds that it violated the anti-partisan gerrymandering rules enacted under Proposition 4, which voters approved seven years ago. The court adopted a remedial map submitted by the plaintiffs in the case (The Utah League of Women Voters and the Mormon Women for Ethical Government) to be used in the 2026 mid-term election. That map created three Republican-leaning districts and one Democratic-leaning district centered on Salt Lake County. In response, the Utah Legislature launched an aggressive multi-front…

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South Carolina Governor Calls Special Session on Redistricting After Senate Blocks Extension

By EditorMay 14, 2026

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster called a special session Thursday evening for state lawmakers to tackle redistricting ahead of the midterm elections, announcing on X: "I have issued an Executive Order calling the General Assembly back for an extra legislative session to address the state budget and congressional districts." The session is set to begin on Friday morning. McMaster initially chose not to set a special session but changed course after the Republican-led state Senate rejected a measure to extend its current session to take up a redrawn map, despite pressure from President Donald Trump, who posted on Truth Social,…

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Georgia Governor Calls for June Special Session for Mid-Decade Redistricting

By EditorMay 14, 2026

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has called the General Assembly into a special session beginning June 17 to consider new congressional, state Senate, and state House district maps for the 2028 election cycle, according to the governor’s May 13 proclamation. The session is being called in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s April 29 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which affected how race may be considered in redistricting. The proposed maps are not expected to govern this year’s midterm elections because the proclamation specifies the 2028 cycle. Kemp noted that it was too late to change the maps before the upcoming…

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Missouri State Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument in 3 Challenges to 2025 Congressional Map

By EditorMay 12, 2026

The Missouri Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday morning in three consolidated challenges to the state's new congressional map, known as the Missouri First Map, which Gov. Mike Kehoe signed into law following a special legislative session in September 2025. The map, drawn as part of President Trump's broader mid-decade redistricting push to secure additional Republican congressional seats ahead of the 2026 midterms, splits parts of Kansas City into three districts and adds Republican-leaning areas to the district of Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, one of the state's two Democratic House members. The Republican-led legislature passed the map last fall, targeting one…

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With Election Clock Ticking, Virginia Democrats File Emergency SCOTUS Appeal

By EditorMay 11, 2026

Virginia Democrats on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revive the voter-approved redistricting amendment struck down last week by the Supreme Court of Virginia, escalating the fight over the state's congressional map to the nation's highest court. In an emergency application filed with Chief Justice John Roberts, attorneys representing House Speaker Don Scott, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, and the commonwealth of Virginia asked the court to pause the state ruling while the appeal moves forward. Democrats are asking the court to immediately freeze the Virginia ruling and keep the new congressional maps…

Virginiacaseupdates, lawindepth, mid-decade redistricting, policyindepth, Virginia

Tennessee Enacts New Congressional Map, Eliminating State’s Only Majority-Black District

By EditorMay 10, 2026

Last week's Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais dramatically altered the legal landscape for redistricting across the South, and Tennessee wasted no time responding. In a 6-3 decision, the Court struck down Louisiana's majority-Black congressional district as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, substantially narrowing the scope of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act for challenging district maps. Critically, the Court raised the evidentiary bar for plaintiffs, requiring them to prove discriminatory intent tied to present-day conditions and to offer alternative maps that also satisfy a state's legitimate redistricting goals, making it significantly harder to bring successful Voting Rights Act…

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Virginia Supreme Court Strikes Down Democratic Redistricting Plan in McDougle v. Virginia

By EditorMay 09, 2026

The Supreme Court of Virginia on May 8th, struck down a voter-approved constitutional amendment that would have authorized Democrats to redraw the state's congressional map mid-decade, voiding the results of the April 21 special election in which Virginia voters had narrowly approved the measure. In a 4-3 decision in McDougle v. Virginia, the court ruled that the General Assembly violated procedural requirements under Article XII, Section 1 of the Virginia Constitution by advancing the amendment to the ballot, declaring that the constitutional violation "incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy." The core procedural flaw, as the…

Virginiacaseupdates, lawindepth, mid-decade redistricting, Virginia

What Just Happened? Callais Decision Triggers Mutliple Map Redraws

By EditorMay 07, 2026

The Supreme Court has struck down Louisiana’s 2024 congressional map in Louisiana v. Callais, ruling 6-3 that the state’s creation of a second majority-Black district was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The map had been drawn after lower courts found Louisiana’s 2022 plan likely violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because it contained only one majority-Black district in a state where Black residents make up roughly one-third of the population. But the new 2024 map prompted a separate challenge from voters who argued that Louisiana had sorted voters by race in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. The Court…

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