Constitutional Law · Civil Rights · Elections · Electoral Systems·May 11, 2026
SCOTUS vacates order requiring Alabama's second Black district
Supreme Court vacates injunction protecting Alabama's second Black district
On May 11, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an unsigned 6-3 order vacating the district court's injunction that had required Alabama to maintain two majority-Black congressional districts. The ruling came eight days before Alabama's May 19 primary and twelve days after the Court's April 29 Louisiana v. Callais decision gutted Section 2 of the 📖Voting Rights Act.
The order in Allen v. Caster (No. 25-243) lets Alabama use its 2023 congressional map, a map a federal court had already found to violate the VRA and to constitute intentional racial discrimination under the 14th Amendment. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed the emergency application on May 8 after Gov. 
Kay Ivey signed special session legislation authorizing new primaries in up to four districts if courts cleared the way.
The practical consequence is immediate. Alabama's congressional delegation shifts from 5 Republicans and 2 Democrats to 6 Republicans and 1 Democrat. Rep. Shomari Figures, who won the redrawn majority-Black 2nd District in November 2024, was the first time in decades Alabama sent two Black members to Congress simultaneously. He now faces a district reconfigured to favor Republicans. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, arguing the Court discarded a "meticulously documented" finding of intentional discrimination without sound basis.
Key facts
The Supreme Court issued an unsigned one-paragraph order in Allen v. Caster (No. 25-243) on May 11, 2026, granting Alabama's petition for certiorari before judgment and vacating the district court's permanent injunction against the state's 2023 📖Redistricting Plan. The Court remanded the case to the 11th Circuit with instructions to send it back to the district court for reconsideration in light of , the April 29 ruling that rewrote Section 2 of the 📖Voting Rights Act.
The order was 6-3 along ideological lines, with no majority opinion explaining the rationale. Justice 
Clarence Thomas, who handles emergency matters from the 11th Circuit, referred the application to the full Court, which acted the same day responses were due.
Alabama's 2023 congressional map had been blocked by a three-judge federal district court since September 2023. The court found the map likely violated Section 2 of the VRA by cracking Black voters in southern Alabama across multiple districts. After the Supreme Court's June 2023 Allen v. Milligan ruling confirmed that violation in a 5-4 decision written by Chief Justice 
Roberts, Alabama redrew its lines. The district court on May 8, 2025, finding it also violated Section 2 and that Alabama had intentionally discriminated against Black voters in violation of the 14th Amendment, a holding the court called "not a close call."
The May 2026 SCOTUS order vacates the VRA injunction. Justice Sotomayor's dissent pointed out the district court's separate 14th Amendment finding of intentional discrimination remains valid, a constitutional holding that Callais didn't touch.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed the emergency application on May 8, 2026, one day after Gov. Kay Ivey signed House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1. That legislation authorized new primary elections for congressional districts 1, 2, 6, and 7 if courts permitted the state to use its 2023 map. Marshall's application cited Callais as a change in controlling law and to give the state time before the May 19 primary.
The 11th Circuit had rejected Alabama's earlier emergency request, telling the state the fight now belonged to SCOTUS. Justice Thomas received the application and set a Monday deadline for plaintiffs to respond. The Court acted hours after that deadline.
The order's timing directly contradicted the 📖Purcell principle, a doctrine holding that courts shouldn't change election rules close to an election because it creates voter confusion. Absentee ballots had already been cast in the May 19 primary under the court-ordered map when SCOTUS vacated the injunction. noted that 'vacating the District Court's injunction will immediately replace the current map with Alabama's 2023 📖Redistricting Plan until the District Court acts, even though voting has already begun.'
An documented that those votes could be invalidated if courts finalize the 2023 map, with voters in affected districts potentially forced to vote again in a new primary. Election officials in multiple counties said the last-minute change created significant administrative headaches.
The congressional impact is immediate. Under the court-ordered remedial map in place since 2024, Alabama's 7-seat delegation held 5 Republicans and 2 Democrats: Rep. Terri Sewell in the Birmingham-area 7th District and Rep. Shomari Figures in the Montgomery-Mobile area 2nd District. The 2023 map eliminates the 2nd District's Black voting majority, reducing the Black voting-age population from roughly 48% to 39%, shifting the delegation to an , with direct implications for House control in the November 2026 midterms.
Rep. Shomari Figures, a Democrat and attorney who won Alabama's 2nd Congressional District in November 2024 with 54.5 percent of the vote, became the first Black representative from that district. His win helped Alabama send two Black members to Congress simultaneously for the first time in state history. Figures had been a senior official in the Biden Justice Department before running for office. As recently as May 8, 2026, he told supporters at a Montgomery town hall that he didn't expect the Supreme Court to lift the injunction. He said he trusted the courts to maintain the protected map through 2030. The May 11 order proved him wrong.
Deuel Ross, Director of Litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, led the trial team that convinced the district court to find intentional discrimination. After the SCOTUS order, Ross said: 'The Court's decision interferes with the ongoing election and puts the validity of the votes of thousands of early voters into doubt. We will consider all of our options for protecting the rights of voters and reinstating the court ordered map.' Robert Clopton Sr., president of the Mobile NAACP, called it 'an atrocity' and said 'the Supreme Court has betrayed Black voters, betrayed America and betrayed our democracy.'
Civil rights advocates noted that Alabama Democrats and plaintiffs are exploring whether the state constitution's own anti-discrimination provisions can block the 2023 map even if the federal VRA claim has been weakened.
The Alabama order is part of a multi-state 📖redistricting wave triggered by Callais. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee called a special session targeting Rep. Steve Cohen's majority-Black Memphis seat, splitting it into three Republican-leaning districts. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new map on May 4, 2026, targeting four Democratic seats. South Carolina moved to dilute Rep. James Clyburn's 6th District, held by the 17-term Democrat. The documented the multi-state wave, and reported combined post-Callais redraws could net Republicans up to 16-18 additional House seats nationally going into November.
The legal question the district court must now resolve on remand involves two tracks. First, it must reconsider the Section 2 VRA claim under Callais's new evidentiary standard, which requires plaintiffs to disentangle racial bloc voting from partisan voting. Second, the 14th Amendment intentional-discrimination finding, which the district court made on May 8, 2025, remains legally intact because Callais addressed only the VRA. confirms that finding is 'independent of, and unaffected by, any of the legal issues discussed in Callais.' Sotomayor wrote that the majority had 'unceremoniously' discarded a 'meticulously documented' remedial order without addressing why the constitutional finding no longer justified it.
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