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A federal court blocked Alabama from using its new congressional map on May 26, in a blow to a GOP effort to oust a Democratic incumbent in November's midterm elections.The judges ordered the state to use a court drawn map with two majority-Black seats for the 2026 midterm elections, writing that to do otherwise would require Alabamians to cast votes in the 2026 elections under a map "tainted by intentional race-based discrimination."Alabama is expected to appeal the May 26 decision.The ruling comes after the U.S. Supreme Court in late April threw out a Louisiana congressional map that was drawn to protect the voting power of Black Louisianans. Based on that decision, the high court then tossed out an earlier ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama that had blocked the Alabama congressional map, ordering the local federal court to reconsider the Alabama case in light of the justices' decision on Louisiana's map.But U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus and U.S. District Judges Anna M. Manasco and Terry F. Moorer found May 26 that, under the new standard from the Supreme Court's decision on Louisiana's map, the Alabama map was likely still unlawful.In 2023, a closely divided Supreme Court backed the lower court's ruling that Alabama's Republican-drawn map likely violated the Voting Rights Act. That 5-4 ruling was authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, who was joined by fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Both voted, in the Louisiana case, to limit the scope of the Voting Rights Act.This is a developing story.Contributing: Reuters
