ALABAMA — The Supreme Court issued an unsigned emergency order allowing Alabama to use its preferred congressional map. The decision followed a federal court finding of intentional discrimination against Black voters in Alabama's redistricting process.

The lower court found Alabama lawmakers concentrated Black voters into one majority-minority district and dispersed them across three others. The court ordered Alabama to draw a second majority-minority congressional district.

In February 2022, the Court voted five to four to allow Alabama to conduct elections using its existing congressional map. Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the order, "The District Court's order would require heroic efforts by those state and local authorities in the next few weeks—and even heroic efforts likely would not be enough to avoid chaos and confusion."

Following the 2022 election, the Court ruled that Alabama's redistricting map likely violated Section 2 and directed the state to redraw its districts. In 2023, the Alabama legislature approved a congressional map containing one majority-minority district. The federal district court stated, "We are deeply troubled that the State enacted a map that the State readily admits does not provide the remedy we said federal law requires." For 2024, the court appointed independent experts to draw districts.

In 2025, the federal district court ruled that Alabama violated Section 2 and the Fourteenth Amendment. The court wrote, "Try as we might, we cannot understand the 2023 Plan as anything other than an intentional effort to dilute Black Alabamians' voting strength and evade the unambiguous requirements of court orders standing in the way."

Alabama requested to use its preferred map. The federal district court denied the request due to intentional race-based discrimination. The Court wrote, "The panel did not heed the presumption of legislative good faith" when analyzing the redistricting process.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Sotomayor wrote: "Down one lies an orderly election, held under a tried-and-tested congressional map that protects Black Alabamians' right to vote and with which all voters, elections officials, and candidates alike are familiar." She wrote: "Down the other lies a chaotic election, held under a never-before-used congressional map that intentionally discriminates against Black Alabamians, that Alabama adopted in unashamed defiance of a prior court order directly affirmed by this Court, and that will require officials to change the voter registrations of hundreds of thousands of voters in just days at best."