A three-judge federal panel has just invalidated Alabama Republicans’ attempt to use their 2023 congressional map for the upcoming 2026 midterm elections. The ruling blocks the state from implementing a plan that would have created a six Republican and one Democratic configuration in the House—a setup critics argued still violated voting rights protections for Black voters. Instead, Alabama must continue using a court-approved remedial map that includes two majority-Black congressional districts.
Under this current arrangement, Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District was redrawn to form a second district where Black residents constitute a majority. That seat flipped to Democrats in the 2024 election, and Republicans have sought to reverse the map since then. Alabama officials immediately signaled they will appeal the decision directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. The state’s attorney general, Steve Marshall, described the blocked plan as “a blandly unobjectionable congressional map.” Rep. Shomari Figures, who represents the flipped district, praised the ruling but warned that the fight is not over.
The court rejected Alabama’s move after the state legislature drafted a new map following the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Allen v. Milligan, which found Alabama’s original map likely violated the Voting Rights Act. Federal judges determined the replacement map still contained intentional race-based discrimination and failed to provide Black voters with meaningful opportunities to elect preferred candidates.
Alabama had previously argued that the recent Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais created a legal pathway to revisit the map, but the three-judge panel concluded the state’s attempt was tainted by discriminatory intent. With voter reassignment under the current court-approved map suspended until after the Supreme Court appeal is resolved, Alabama Republicans face an immediate deadline to seek intervention before the 2026 election cycle locks in place.
