Alabama filed a pair of emergency petitions to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, urging it to lift a lower court’s block of a new congressional map that could help the GOP flip a Democratic seat in the 2026 elections.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court tossed a three-judge panel’s previous finding that the map was the result of an unlawful racial gerrymander, asking the panel to reconsider the case in light of the justices’ ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which significantly raised the legal bar for proving claims of intentional racial discrimination when drawing congressional maps. The three-judge panel came to the same conclusion as it did in its previous ruling on Tuesday, and Alabama Solicitor General A. Barrett Bowdre argued to the Supreme Court in his emergency petition that the renewed ruling defies, rather than follows, the Supreme Court’s Callais ruling.
“Among other faults, the district court’s injunction halts ongoing election preparations for reasons that defy Louisiana v. Callais,” the pair of emergency petitions reads.
Alabama argued in its petition that the state followed the standard set out in Callais, while promoting its goals of protecting incumbents, among other race-neutral objectives, when drawing the map but that the lower court still insisted that officials needed to create two black-majority districts despite the high court’s recent ruling on race-based redistricting.
“Callais vindicates Alabama’s position on the lawfulness of the 2023 Plan, yet the district court decided in one week that Callais changed nothing,” the emergency petitions read.
“Worse, the district court doubled down on its constitutional holding that finds no home in our Constitution: that Alabama intentionally discriminated by refusing to intentionally discriminate,” they continue.
Alabama officials requested that the high court issue a ruling on the pair of petitions by 10 a.m. Monday, “or as soon as possible thereafter,” to ensure that officials may have time to prepare the upcoming House primaries with whichever map is permitted by the justices for 2026.
“A stay is warranted so that Alabama is not again precluded from using its legislatively enacted 2023 Plan based on a decision that defies Callais, manipulates the Purcell principle, and offends the Constitution’s promise of equal protection for all,” Alabama’s emergency petitions read.
COURT BLOCKS ALABAMA REPUBLICANS’ PLAN TO INSTATE NEW MAP
Alabama delayed primaries for House seats affected by the state’s implementation of the GOP-favorable map to Aug. 11 after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the state to use the map. The Supreme Court’s eventual ruling on Alabama’s pair of new emergency petitions could determine if the delay to the primaries for the state’s 1st, 2nd, 6th, and 7th congressional districts ends up providing no advantage to the GOP.
Since the Callais ruling last month, several Republican-led states have redrawn congressional maps in hopes of gaining House seats after the requirements for majority-minority districts were significantly changed. Republicans redrew maps in Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee, while legislatures in Georgia, South Carolina, and Mississippi appear likely to make changes to their maps after this year’s elections.