Alabama officials asked the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday (May 7) to pause a federal court’s ruling blocking the state from using a congressional map that’s favorable to Republicans in this year’s elections.
The emergency application for a stay comes a day after a three-judge panel barred the state from using a map adopted by the Legislature in 2023 because it found the map was intentionally discriminatory towards Black people in Alabama.
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Instead, the federal court ordered the state to use the 2024 court-drawn map, which includes two Black opportunity districts.
Justice Clarence Thomas requested that the plaintiffs respond by Monday at 4 p.m., which is six hours later than the deadline Attorney General Steve Marshall requested for a decision.
The state’s request is the latest step in the aftermath of a Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which found that a majority-minority district was a racial gerrymander.
“The Supreme Court made it clear in Callais that courts should not impose or require states to draw racially gerrymandered congressional maps,” Marshall said in a statement. “But the three-judge district court set that rule aside and once again replaced Alabama’s map with one that sorts voters based on race.”
Republicans in Alabama and across the country have quickly tried to change congressional maps to pick up more GOP seats in the fallout of the decision.
“Callais vindicates Alabama’s position on the lawfulness of the 2023 Plan, yet the district court decided in one week that Callais changed nothing,” Alabama officials wrote on Wednesday.
In Tuesday’s ruling, the three-judge panel said that the 2023 map remains racially discriminatory and thus violates the Constitution even in light of the Callais decision.
“Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the panel wrote Tuesday.
After a special session of the Legislature, Gov. Kay Ivey scheduled special Aug. 11 primaries for the four congressional districts that would change if the state can fully implement the 2023 map this year. Republicans hope to flip one of Alabama’s two current Democratic-held seats red under that plan.
Work is already underway to prepare for those special primaries in the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th congressional districts.
Latest motion
In the state’s latest motion, Alabama also argued that the district court’s ruling so close to an election will harm voters and cause confusion.
“Candidates may have stopped campaigning in their old districts— anticipating the new August primary under new district lines; voters may not have voted or may have voted differently in the May primary with the understanding that it would not count,” the state wrote on Wednesday.
Congressional candidates have already qualified for primary elections in the four new districts, including some who have switched districts, such as State Rep. Rhett Marques, R-Enterprise, who has now qualified to run in the 2nd District after previously running in the 1st under the 2024 map.
“The extent to which there is confusion about the maps which Alabama uses for congressional districts seems to be with the three-judge panel, not the voters,” Marshall added.
The Department of Justice also submitted an amicus brief in support of Alabama’s appeal to stay the case.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Alex Angle and originally published by Alabama Daily News.
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