The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) on Thursday backing Alabama’s efforts to use a 6-1 Republican congressional map for the 2026 election.
A three-judge panel of federal judges on Tuesday granted a motion by left-wing activist groups to block the use of a 6-1 Republican congressional map passed by lawmakers in 2023.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall requested in a filing on Wednesday that SCOTUS enter an administrative stay and a stay pending appeal of the injunctions barring the State from using the 6-1 plan in the upcoming August 11 congressional special primary elections and November general election. A decision by SCOTUS is expected next week.
According to the brief filed by Solicitor General John Sauer with SCOTUS on Thursday, the 5-2 congressional map mandated by the three-judge panel is a “court-ordered racial gerrymander.”
“The United States has a strong interest in protecting its citizens from court-ordered racial gerrymanders and in ensuring that federal courts do not erroneously interfere with federal elections or usurp the constitutional primacy of the States in drawing congressional districts,” Sauer said in the filing.
He continued, “Perhaps the best proof of the district court’s error is that, if Alabama had adopted the second black opportunity district the district court wanted, it would have subjected itself to racial-gerrymandering liability under Callais.”
“While the district court repeatedly extolled the court-drawn remedial plan as 'race-blind' in the sense that the map-drawer claimed not to consider race in drawing particular lines, race nevertheless clearly predominated in that map,” Sauer added.
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