The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
May 8, 2026 – MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Governor Kay Ivey (R) on Friday signed House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1 to authorize the governor to call a special election in congressional districts 1, 2, 6, and 7 as well as state senate districts 25 and 26 in anticipation of favorable court action in the state's ongoing redistricting litigation.
"With this special session successfully behind us, Alabama now stands ready to quickly act, should the courts issue favorable rulings in our ongoing redistricting cases," said Governor Ivey. "I thank the Legislature for answering my call to address the issue in fast order. I am grateful to Speaker Ledbetter and Pro Tem Gudger for their strong leadership and focus this week. Alabama knows our state, our people and our districts best."
Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) today asked the United States Supreme Court to lift a federal court order requiring Alabama to use a race-based congressional map in the upcoming May 19 primary. The filings argue that the order in place directly conflicts with the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Louisiana v. Callais last week. Marshall says that Callais clarified the rules for how courts must assess challenges brought under controversial Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to congressional redistricting. The State is asking the Court to act by May 14, five days before Alabamians go to the polls.
"I will continue to fight for Alabama to be able to use the congressional map the people's elected representatives enacted," Attorney General Marshall said. "Alabama drew a map based on lawful policy goals, not race, and the Supreme Court's recent ruling vindicates that approach. We were punished for doing the right thing, and we are asking the Court to correct that now."
The dispute goes back to Alabama's 2023 congressional map, which the State Legislature prepared after the federal court rejected the state's 2021 map. Marshall explained that the 2023 map was designed around three geographic communities-the Gulf Coast, the Black Belt, and the Wiregrass region-keeping each one united within as few congressional districts as possible. Despite that, the federal court struck down that map in 2025, finding it violated the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution because it did not include a new majority-minority district. The court replaced it with a map drawn by a court-appointed special master, which remains in place today pursuant to court orders.
Alabama argues the lower court got it wrong, and that the Supreme Court's recent Callais decision confirms it. In Callais, the Supreme Court ruled that when challengers propose an alternative congressional map, it must accomplish everything the state's own map was designed to do. Alabama says none of the alternative maps proposed by the plaintiffs here met that standard, and the lower court acknowledged as much before it nonetheless sided with the plaintiffs. The State also argues the lower court wrongly concluded that Alabama had acted with discriminatory intent simply because it chose to draw a race-neutral map.
Following the 6 to 3 Callais ruling, Marshall asked the Supreme Court to vacate the lower court's injunctions and send the cases back to be reconsidered in light of Callais. On May 5, he filed a separate emergency motion at the district court level asking that court to lift its own orders while the appeals play out. Today's emergency applications go directly to Justice Clarence Thomas and ask the Supreme Court to immediately halt the lower court's order imposing a court-drawn map on Alabama for the May 19 primary.
In a separate case, Marshall has concurrently also been fighting to restore Alabama's state Senate map, filing an emergency motion with the Eleventh Circuit on May 4 and a reply brief on May 7 in that parallel proceeding.
In that case a lower court federal judge in Birmingham found that Blacks in the Montgomery area are entitled to two majority minority districts in Montgomery County. The result was another special master drawn plan redrawing Senate Districts 25 and 26 in Montgomery and Elmore Counties. Previously Blacks were represented by Sen. Kirk Hatcher (D-Montgomery) in a 75% Black to 24% White District 26 in Montgomery County, while Sen. Will Barfoot (R-Pike Road) represented a mostly White District 25 in Montgomery and Elmore County. After the special master got through racially gerrymandering the two districts District 26 is ~47% Black and District 25 is 52% Black. Hatcher is now running for re-election in Barfoot's SD25 and Barfoot is running in Hatcher's SD26. Both districts zig zag all over Montgomery and Elmore counties to achieve the court's ordered racial outcomes.
If the court rules favorably for the State of Alabama in both of these cases Governor Ivey will nullify the results of the May 19 primaries and order a new primary in six weeks in CD 1, 2, 6, and 7 and the State will revert to the 2023 Congressional District map that was blocked by the three-judge panel in Atlanta. Similarly there would be a special primary election is SD25 and SD26 using the Legislature's 2021 map.
The Governor's office said that as the governor mentioned last week, by her calling the Legislature into a special session, she is ensuring Alabama is prepared should the courts act quickly enough to allow Alabama's previously drawn congressional and state senate maps to be used during this election cycle. If the court-ordered injunctions are lifted, Alabama will revert to the maps drawn by the Legislature for congressional districts in 2023 and state senate districts in 2021.
The May 19, 2026, primary election will still occur as planned. Most state leaders are hopeful that the injunctions will be lifted, so that the governor can call a special election using the maps drawn by Alabama's elected representatives rather than the ones forced upon the state by the lower federal courts.
To comment or to ask a question email: brandonmreportergmail.com
Reader Comments(0)