MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A legal firestorm is erupting in Alabama following a Monday ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that cleared the way for the state to use a congressional map with only one majority-Black district, just days before the scheduled May 19 primary.
The decision has triggered a high-stakes standoff between the Republican-led Legislature and voting rights advocates over a 2022 amendment to the Alabama Constitution. At the heart of the dispute is whether the state’s move to void current election results violates its own laws regarding the timing of election changes.
In November 2022, Alabama voters overwhelmingly approved Amendment 4, which was designed to prevent last-minute changes to election procedures. The amendment explicitly states that any legislation relating to the “conduct of the general election” must be implemented at least six months before the next affected election.
Opponents argue that the legislation passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature last week—which authorizes the governor to void the May 19 results and schedule special primaries—runs directly afoul of this constitutional cutoff.
The Supreme Court’s 11th-hour intervention comes as Alabamians have already begun casting absentee ballots under a previous, court-ordered map that featured two majority-Black districts. That map was used during the 2024 election cycle after federal courts found the state’s original 2021 lines likely violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting Black political power.
However, following the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which shifted the legal standard for racial gerrymandering, Alabama officials successfully petitioned the high court to reinstate their preferred 2023 map.
The ruling has immediate consequences for the 2026 midterm cycle. Representative Shomari Figures, a Democrat elected in 2024 to the newly created second majority-Black district, now faces a political map where his seat may essentially disappear or become a Republican stronghold.
“Today, the Supreme Court vindicated the state’s long-held position,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement. “Now, the power to draw Alabama’s maps goes back to the people’s elected representatives.”
Meanwhile, plaintiffs in the redistricting case have returned to the district court seeking a temporary restraining order. They argue that regardless of the federal ruling, the state cannot legally upend an election already in progress without violating the six-month implementation rule mandated by the state constitution.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen confirmed that the May 19 primaries will proceed as scheduled for now, but the validity of those ballots remains in question. If Governor Kay Ivey uses the newly granted legislative power to call for special elections, thousands of votes already cast in the affected districts could be rendered moot.
For Birmingham and the surrounding Black Belt, the clash represents the latest chapter in a years-long struggle over representation. Critics of the GOP map argue that “cracking and packing”—the practice of splitting minority communities across multiple districts—is once again being used to minimize their influence at the ballot box.
As the state prepares for next Tuesday’s polls, the Alabama Supreme Court is expected to weigh in as early as Thursday on whether the legislative maneuver violates the state’s 2022 constitutional protections.