Judges halt Alabama redistricting plan that could boost Republicans in midterms

In a major setback for the Republican Party, a panel of federal judges on Tuesday temporarily blocked Alabama from using a newly redrawn congressional map. The three-judge panel ordered the state to continue using the court-drawn congressional districts adopted for the 2024 elections while litigation continues.

In their order, the panel ruled that the state's map deliberately diluted the political power of Black Alabamians and ordered the Secretary of State to immediately revert to a court-approved, race-blind map. Faced with what it described as a "critical decision on a very tight timeline," the panel said they could not tolerate a map built on racial bias. 

"We now face a critical decision on a very tight timeline. We can either allow the Secretary of State to administer Alabama's 2026 elections with a legislatively enacted districting plan that we found (after a full trial) intentionally discriminated against Black voters based on race in violation of the Constitution, or we can issue a preliminary injunction... requiring the Secretary to administer the 2026 elections with the race-blind plan that he used on orders from us and the Supreme Court for Alabama's 2024 elections," the judges stated in their order. 

The order comes at a time when a Supreme Court ruling prompted a gerrymandering race by, what many critics believe, diluted the federal Voting Rights Act. In a 6–3 ruling last month, the Supreme Court had struck down a Louisiana congressional map, undoing a lower court's effort to boost minority representation in the region. 

Since then, several Republican-controlled states have moved quickly to redraw congressional lines ahead of the November midterms, aiming to strengthen the party's narrow grip on the House of Representatives. In Tennessee, Republicans enacted new districts that dismantled a Black-majority Memphis-based seat previously held by the state's lone Democratic member of Congress.

South Carolina Republicans are also considering legislation that could reshape the district represented by Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn, a prominent Black lawmaker who has held his seat since 1993.

While Republicans have defended the new maps as lawful exercises of state authority, Democrats have also pursued their own redistricting efforts in some states. California Democrats approved revised congressional maps, and party officials expect additional gains from court-imposed district changes in Utah.

Unless overturned on appeal, which GOP legislators are expected to file, the court's order means that Alabama's 2026 congressional elections will proceed under the same map used two years earlier, preserving two districts in which Black voters play a critical role.