Alabama plaintiffs urge SCOTUS to keep redistricting injunction

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights ActVoting Rights ActFederal statute prohibiting racial discrimination in voting and establishing federal oversight of election administration in jurisdictions with histories of discrimination.Key ConceptVoting Rights ActFederal statute prohibiting racial discrimination in voting and establishing federal oversight of election administration in jurisdictions with histories of discrimination.Open conceptBookmark on August 6, 1965, after the Selma-to-Montgomery marches brought national attention to Alabama's systematic disenfranchisement of Black voters. Section 5 of the VRA required Alabama and other states with histories of discrimination to get federal approval before changing any voting law or procedure — a mechanism called preclearance. Between 1965 and 2013, the DOJ objected to more than 1,000 proposed voting changes under Section 5, the majority in Southern states including Alabama.

The Supreme Court weakened Section 2 of the VRA in Mobile v. Bolden (1980), ruling 6-3 that plaintiffs had to prove intentional discriminationIntentional DiscriminationA legal standard requiring proof that a government actor purposefully acted to discriminate.Key ConceptIntentional DiscriminationA legal standard requiring proof that a government actor purposefully acted to discriminate.Open conceptBookmark — not just discriminatory results — to challenge at-large election systems. The ruling gutted civil rights plaintiffs' ability to challenge minority vote dilution. Congress responded directly: in 1982, lawmakers amended Section 2 to restore a results-based test, making clear that a voting practice could violate Section 2 even without proof of discriminatory intent. That 1982 results test governed every Section 2 redistrictingRedistrictingThe process of redrawing congressional and state legislative district boundaries, typically every 10 years after the Census, to equalize populations.Key ConceptRedistrictingThe process of redrawing congressional and state legislative district boundaries, typically every 10 years after the Census, to equalize populations.Open conceptBookmark case for the next 44 years.

The Supreme Court established the three-part Thornburg v. Gingles test in 1986 to operationalize Section 2's results standard for redistricting. To require a majority-minority district, plaintiffs had to show the minority group was sufficiently large and geographically compact to form a district, that it voted cohesively, and that white bloc voting usually defeated its preferred candidates. The Gingles framework became the foundation of every majority-minority district case until the Supreme Court's April 29, 2026 Callais ruling replaced it.

The Supreme Court's June 25, 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder eliminated Section 5 preclearance 5-4. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the coverage formula Congress used to identify which states needed preclearance was outdated and unconstitutional. Within hours of the decision, Texas, North Carolina, and Alabama moved to implement voter ID laws and redistricting plans that had been blocked under Section 5. Alabama's loss of preclearance meant it could draw post-2020 maps without DOJ advance approval for the first time in nearly 50 years.

Voting rights plaintiffs in Singleton and Milligan filed their emergency response at the U.S. Supreme Court on June 2, 2026, urging the justices to leave in place a federal court injunction blocking Alabama from using its 2023 congressional map for the 2026 midterms.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall had filed an emergency stayEmergency StayAn urgent court order that temporarily freezes a lower court ruling while appeals proceed.Key ConceptEmergency StayAn urgent court order that temporarily freezes a lower court ruling while appeals proceed.Open conceptBookmark application on May 27, directing it to Justice Clarence Thomas as the circuit justice for the Eleventh Circuit. Thomas declined to grant an immediate administrative stay but ordered plaintiffs to respond by 4 p.m. on June 1 — the deadline that produced the June 2 filing.

The three-judge district court panel reinstated the injunction on May 26, 2026, one day after the Supreme Court sent the case back for reconsideration following Louisiana v. Callais. The panel wrote that it '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 documented that Alabama's legislature set a racial target, protected a white community based on its 'French and Spanish colonial heritage,' and drew districts in knowing defiance of Allen v. Milligan.

Louisiana v. Callais, decided 6-3 on April 29, 2026, dramatically weakened Section 2 by replacing the 1982 results test with a requirement to prove intentional discrimination — restoring exactly the standard Congress rejected after Mobile v. Bolden. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority. The Congressional Research Service reported the decision made it 'extremely difficult' for voters of color to bring Section 2 claims. Alabama immediately argued the new standard invalidated the court-ordered remedial map.

The plaintiffs' June 2 brief made three core arguments. First, absentee ballots for the upcoming primary had already been issued to voters across Alabama on the morning of June 2, making any mid-election district switch disruptive to voters who'd already received ballots for one district. Second, state and county offices were closed June 1 to observe Jefferson Davis's birthday — Alabama is the only state that still observes the Confederate president's birthday as an official state holiday, shutting the offices needed to execute any voter reassignment. Third, nothing in Callais changed the evidence of intentional discrimination the panel had documented.

A bipartisan coalition of election officials and experts filed an amicus brief on June 1, 2026 warning that Alabama's emergency bid would force local officials to complete a voter reassignment process that normally takes three to four months in a single business day. Former Ambassador Norman Eisen, Stephen Jonas, and Joshua Kolb of the Democracy Defenders Fund filed the brief, identifying Jefferson, Elmore, and Covington counties as requiring precinct-by-precinct and street-segment-by-street-segment reassignment work.

U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed a brief supporting Alabama, co-signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. The Solicitor General's brief argued the district court violated the Purcell principlePurcell PrincipleCourts should not change election rules close to an election.Key ConceptPurcell PrincipleCourts should not change election rules close to an election.Open conceptBookmark by issuing its injunction less than three months before the August 11 primary and argued the court-ordered remedial map's 48.7% Black voting-age population in the 2nd District was itself a racial gerrymander under Callais. The intervention marked the Trump-era DOJ reversing its prior position: the Biden DOJ had filed a Statement of Interest supporting plaintiffs in Singleton v. Allen in 2021.

The redistricting fight traces directly to Allen v. Milligan, where the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on June 8, 2023 that Alabama's original congressional map violated Section 2. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion, joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson, and in part by Kavanaugh. Alabama's Black residents make up roughly 27% of the voting-age population but under the 2023 legislature-drawn map would have the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice in only one of the state's seven congressional districts.

The Alabama Legislature drew the 2023 map after Allen v. Milligan, but a three-judge panel blocked it in September 2023 after finding it failed to remedy the Section 2 violation. A court-appointed special master drew a remedial map with two majority-Black districts. Rep. Shomari Figures won the redrawn 2nd District in November 2024 and has served since January 3, 2025. Rep. Terri Sewell, who has represented the majority-Black 7th District since 2011, would see her district's Black population concentration increase under Alabama's 2023 map — a packing strategy that reduces rather than expands Black electoral opportunity.