Democrats strongly condemn redistricting ruling

June 3, 2026 - Montgomery, Ala- Democrats have strongly condemned the U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirming states' rights and further limiting the scope of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Supreme Court decision Tuesday to lift the injunction on redistricting in Alabama allows the state to proceed with maps drawn by Alabama's Legislature in 2023 in the 2026 election cycle.

Alabama House Democrats called the 2023 map "intentionally discriminatory". The 2023 map was found to be unconstitutional multiple times by a three-judge panel in Atlanta. The Supreme Court overturned that decision in a 6 to 3 ruling following the Court's landmark ruling in Louisiana versus Callais. The ruling allows for the 2023 map passed by the Alabama Legislature to be used in the current election which changes the lines for Alabama Congressional districts 1,2, 6,and 7.

Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels (D-Huntsville) issued the following statement in response to the decision:

"This ruling is a disgraceful insult to all of the many foot soldiers of the Civil Rights movement who fought, bled, and died for voting rights and fair Black representation," said Daniels. "It's unconscionable and this rushed and reckless order defies the Court's own logic and precedent. We will continue to fight against all forms of voter suppression, including intentionally discriminatory maps. Right now, it's imperative that Black voters show up to the polls in record numbers. This is plain evidence as to why your vote matters. The path forward is to restore, and then strengthen, the protections of the Voting Rights Act. Until that happens, we will not rest and we'll continue to fight for our rights.'"

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) also released a statement following the U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing Alabama to use its own congressional map in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections:

"Once again, the right-wing Supreme Court has put its blatant partisanship on full display, allowing Alabama Republicans to change the rules in the eleventh hour and use a racist congressional map that federal courts have found-on two separate occasions-intentionally discriminates against Black Alabama voters," said Rep. Sewell. "This is just the latest in a pattern of outrageous Supreme Court decisions that help Republicans desperately cling to power ahead of the midterm elections while diluting Black voices and erasing decades of hard-fought civil rights progress."

"Black voters in Alabama deserve more than just some representation," continued Sewell. "We deserve fair representation. That means two congressional seats where African Americans have the opportunity to elect candidates of our choice. Make no mistake. It is the people of Alabama-not the Supreme Court-who will have the last word. Now that the congressional map has been set, it is up to Alabama voters to vote like we've never voted before and send a message that cannot be ignored-that all voices deserve to be heard in our democracy."

"No matter how hard Alabama state officials may try, they will not succeed in silencing our voices," concluded Sewell. "We will not go back to the Jim Crow era. The fight for fair representation continues."

Obama era-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. also issued a statement in response to the Supreme Court allowing Alabama to move forward with a congressional map drawn in 2023 without further interference from the federal courts.

"This unconscionable, factually deficient decision casts aside the thoughtful, fact-filled ruling by a three-judge lower court-a majority of whom are Trump-appointed judges-that this map intentionally discriminates against Black voters," said Holder. "Let me be very clear. There are no 'institutionalists' among the majority on this Supreme Court, and this decision cements the Roberts Court's lasting legacy as the greatest enemy of the right to vote since the post-Reconstruction era. By cloaking explicit and intentional racial discrimination as somehow resembling 'legislative good faith' and re-casting the state of Alabama as the harmed party-in direct contradiction to their own opinion just three years ago-the Roberts Court has again put its thumb on the scale in favor of its ideological views and allies, and decidedly against American voters and the best of our traditions."

"Through decision after decision, this Court has completely undermined the American people's ability to decide the direction and fate of the nation," said Holder. "By allowing the flow of unregulated money into our electoral systems, by hindering the fight against discriminatory maps, by turning a blind eye to the evils of partisan gerrymandering and by allowing the enhancement of voter suppression, this Court has made it unnecessarily difficult for the people to elect the representatives of their choice at the federal, state, and local levels."

"This is just the latest example of why it is so critically important for a new Congress to use its clear, explicit Constitutional power to enact-as one of its first priorities-legislation that protects the American people from now rampant partisan and racial gerrymandering and to reform this radical, unprincipled Supreme Court," said Holder. "All Americans must be involved in this defense of our democracy."

After a three-judge panel of federal judges in Atlanta blocked the 2023 redistricting map, they selected their own map drawn by a court appointed special master. That map turned CD2 (then represented by conservative Republican Barry Moore (R-Enterprise)) into a 48% Black district where Democrats had greater than a 90 percent chance of winning. Shomari Figures (D-Mobile) won CD2 in the 2024 election.

Rep. Figures also released a statement after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the State of Alabama could use its own 2023 congressional map rather than the one the federal court had forced on the state.

"The Supreme Court's conservative majority is allowing the State of Alabama to use a congressional map that three Republican-appointed judges have repeatedly found was the product of intentional racial discrimination," said Figures. "And just three years ago, this same Supreme Court agreed that Alabama had discriminated against Black voters in drawing its maps. But, given the Supreme Court's recent highly politicized and unprecedented actions, we are certainly not surprised by this decision."

"The Supreme Court has now confirmed that there is no longer a Voting Rights Act in America, and states are essentially free to discriminate against minority voters with no consequences," said Figures. "This is a dangerous ruling that sets the State and this nation back decades. Too many people fought and sacrificed for me to have the opportunity to serve in Congress for me to just walk away. I will stay in this fight to build a better future for Alabama and a better country. I will not be deterred by this coordinated effort to stack the deck for Republicans to retain power in November -- and I know voters won't be deterred either. We have to remind America and Alabama what the power of organizing, mobilizing, and voting looks like. And we will do just that."

Figures - if he runs for re-election - will face a difficult time getting re-elected in a new CD2 that goes from 48% Black to just 28% Black.

The National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) initiated the Allen versus Milligan case for the Caster plaintiff group. That lawsuit struck down Alabama's 2021 congressional map claiming that the Legislature drawn map violated Section 2 of the controversial Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965. In 2023, following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold and enforce Section 2 of the VRA in Allen v. Milligan, Alabama was ordered to enact a VRA-compliant congressional map that included two Black-opportunity districts.

The Legislature responded by drawing the 2023 Congressional map in a special session. That map increased the percentage of Black voters in Barry Moore's Congressional District 2 from 22 percent Black to 28%. The three-judge panel ruled in favor of the NRF and the plaintiffs and then instituted their own 48% Black map that resulted in Figures' election. Tuesday's Supreme Court decision was a big win for the state of Alabama and a blow to the NRF.

"The Supreme Court's shameful ruling allowing Alabama to move forward with a gerrymander that was drawn with the explicit intent to dilute Black voting power-as found by a panel of judges that included two Trump appointees-is an absolute affront to the founding principles of our democracy, and wipes out whatever was left of the Court's credibility," said Marina Jenkins, Executive Director of the National Redistricting Foundation. "This country deserves better, and we must continue to work toward federal legislation that not only bans partisan and racial gerrymandering but also ensures that our rights cannot be undermined by captured courts."

After the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which reinterpreted Section 2 of the VRA, Alabama's congressional primary elections were already underway. After that decision, the Alabama Legislature went into a special session to pass a bill that would cancel and reschedule the state's ongoing primary elections in four of the seven congressional districts and to reinstate its 2023 map which more closely followed the state's 2021 map.

Once the Supreme Court lifted the district court's injunction of the 2023 map and remanded the case to the district court for further consideration in light of the Callais decision, Governor Kay Ivey called a special primary election for the 1st, 2nd, 6th, and 7th congressional districts under the reinstated 2023 map that Alabama's elected Legislature had passed.

The NRF-supported Caster plaintiffs then asked the court for a temporary restraining order to prevent Alabama from canceling its primaries and a preliminary injunction to block the use of the previously invalidated congressional map. In May, a preliminary injunction hearing was held before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama to consider the plaintiffs' request, and that court granted the injunction, preventing Alabama from reverting to its own Congressional map and ordered the state to hold the 2026 midterm elections on the current, court-adopted map, which includes two Black opportunity districts.

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen (R) and Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) quickly sought an emergency stay of that ruling with the U.S. Supreme Court, which has granted the request allowing the August 11 Congressional primary to proceed using the 2023 map drawn by Alabama's elected leaders rather than the map drawn by a court appointed special master.

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