The Supreme Court handed Alabama officials a win Tuesday evening by allowing the state to use a new congressional map that could help the GOP flip a Democratic seat in the 2026 elections.The high court ruled 6-3 in favor of lifting an injunction placed by a lower court last week that had found the congressional map was an unlawful racial gerrymander, even after the Supreme Court ordered the lower court to reconsider the case in light of its ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which significantly raised the legal bar for proving claims of intentional racial discrimination when drawing congressional maps. In the Tuesday per curiam order, the six-justice majority said the lower court failed to follow the Supreme Court’s Callais ruling.The ruling found that the lower court panel did “not heed the presumption of legislative good faith” state lawmakers are entitled to when drawing congressional districts, along with failing “to follow our instruction in Callais that the mere fact that voters of different races vote for different parties is not relevant to proving racially polarized voting patterns.”
The majority also took aim at the lower court for changing the congressional map weeks before Alabama’s rescheduled House primaries, saying they have “repeatedly cautioned that lower federal courts should not alter the election rules on the eve of an election.”
