U.S. Supreme Court Clears Alabama To Adopt GOP Congressional Map Ahead Of 2026 Midterms

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for Alabama to adopt a new House map ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, setting aside lower-court rulings that had blocked the state from using the GOP-drawn map.

Axios said the move is likely to flip one seat in the House of Representatives from blue to red and may lead to a full redistricting effort that could flip two seats.

CBS News

The Supreme Court’s action sent the pending redistricting cases back to district court for further proceedings, with the decision described as 6-3 and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elana Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting.

CBS News reported that the contained just one majority-Black district out of seven House districts and that Alabama’s congressional delegation is currently composed of five Republicans and two Democrats.

In a dissent, Sotomayor wrote that the Supreme Court’s move was “inappropriate and will cause only confusion as Alabamians begin to vote in the elections scheduled for next week.”

CNN said Alabama officials rushed to the Supreme Court late Friday to halt a lower-court order blocking the 2023 map, and the order included no explanation while tossing out the lower court’s block.

Axios reported that Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed emergency motions on April 30 asking SCOTUS to lift lower-court injunctions that blocked the state from using 2023 maps, and it quoted Marshall saying prior litigation “conflated race and politics in a way (that's) now not allowed.”

CNN

CBS News described Alabama’s primary as set for May 19 and said Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law a measure authorizing a special election for congressional districts whose boundaries would change if the state were given the green light to revert back to its 2023 map.

Fox News said a federal court on Friday denied an emergency motion for a stay in the congressional redistricting case, quoting the order that “we do not have the authority to issue an order that upends Alabama's status quo.”

In its own framing, Democracy Docket said SCOTUS allowed Alabama to select a different map for this year’s congressional elections in a “stunning, last-minute move” that would discard the court-ordered congressional map for the 2026 primary elections.

NBC News said the Supreme Court removed an obstacle to Alabama’s using a new congressional map in this year’s election that would eliminate one of the state’s two majority-Black districts, and it described the court action as fast-tracking the state’s effort by sending the litigation back to the lower court.

“Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for Alabama to adopt a new House map ahead of the 2026 midterm elections”

CBS News

NBC News also said Alabama’s Legislature passed legislation, signed into law by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, that would push back the state’s primary elections originally due to take place May 19.

CBS News reported that Alabama’s current map used in the 2024 elections included two majority-Black districts, while the Supreme Court’s action cleared the way for Alabama to revert to a map with one majority-Black district.

Democracy Docket said the SCOTUS order means Alabama will discard its court-ordered congressional map for the 2026 primary elections and use a 2023 map that courts previously struck down as a violation under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

NBC News quoted Sotomayor again, saying the court action was “inappropriate and will cause only confusion as Alabamians begin to vote in the elections scheduled for next week.”