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.
United States Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus, District Judge Anna Manasco and District Judge Terry Moorer held a lengthy hearing on Friday on a preliminary injunction motion filed by the NAACP and ACLU to block a 6-1 Republican map passed by the legislature. Under the proposed injunction, a 5-2 Republican map that was court-ordered and used in the 2024 election would be used in the 2026 election.
The three-judge panel has already repeatedly blocked Alabama from using the congressional map passed by the legislature in 2023.
Attorneys for the State of Alabama argued on Friday the recent Callais ruling made the court-ordered 5-2 map unconstitutional, but Marcus, Manasco and Moorer disagreed. The ruling will likely be quickly appealed by Alabama. The practical result if the federal court's ruling stands is that U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures (D-Mobile) is a heavy favorite to be re-elected in November instead of replaced by a Republican.
Marcus, Manasco and Moorer said on Tuesday, “Alabama charges that Callais upends our finding of intentional discrimination because it is fully derivative of our Section Two finding, but that charge is wrong. And in any event, after again reviewing the extensive evidence regarding Plaintiffs’ Section Two claims, we find that the Plaintiffs have likely established their Section Two claims when measured against the Callais standard. We explain below.”
“Timing issues have been ever-present in this case, and we must consider them again here. We issued preliminary injunctions ahead of the 2022 and 2024 elections and then a permanent injunction ahead of the 2026 election. Each injunction traveled to the Supreme Court. The Court ruled that our first preliminary injunction came too late, and Alabama’s 2022 elections occurred under a legislatively enacted map the Supreme Court later declared unlawful under Section Two (‘the 2021 Plan’). But the Court declined to stay our second injunction (that prohibited use of the 2023 Plan), and Alabama’s 2024 elections occurred under a court-ordered map (“the Special Master Plan”). Now we must consider if time is too short to rule again for the 2026 election,” Marcus, Manasco and Moorer said. “We conclude that it is not. On the unique record before us, we determine that enjoining the 2023 Plan will not disrupt Alabama’s elections. Requiring the use of the Special Master Plan will forestall an expensive, aggressive, and perhaps logistically impossible voter reassignment effort. We take extremely seriously the Supreme Court’s command that federal district courts ordinarily should not intervene on the eve of an election, for risk of causing administrative challenges and confusion. But the record here is clear: enjoining the unconstitutional 2023 Plan will improve the administrative situation in Alabama, not worsen it. As we see it, the irreducible minimum is that federal law requires that all Alabamians have an opportunity to vote under districting plans untainted by intentional race-based discrimination. Accordingly, we are duty-bound to preliminarily enjoin the Secretary from conducting any 2026 congressional elections according to the 2023 Plan, and we further order the Secretary to administer all remaining events comprising Alabama’s 2026 elections according to the Special Master’s race-blind plan.”
A special master hired by a three-judge panel in Birmingham redrew the map for the 2024 congressional elections after Democrats and liberal groups were successful in their initial legal challenge. Marcus, Manasco and Moorer initially ruled the 2023 plan violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Governor Kay Ivey recently signed into law a bill that would allow the State to use previously passed congressional district and State Senate maps if a federal court or the U.S. Supreme Court lifts an injunction on Alabama. The bill signing came after Ivey called a special session after a 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callias, in which SCOTUS held that race-based redistricting is unconstitutional. Shortly after the bill was signed into law, SCOTUS struck down the injunction on using a 2023 Alabama congressional map passed by the legislature.
Alabama was poised to use a likely 6-1 Republican-drawn map passed during a 2023 special session for the 2026 election. However, the three judges blocked the State's 6-1 map again on Tuesday.
The state will still hold a special election in August for a handful of congressional seats affected by the map change under the 6-1 map. Ivey set the special primary election for August 11. There will be no runoff election. The general election will occur as planned, along with all other races, on November 3.
The court-ordered map used for the 2024 election resulted in Democrats sending two members to Congress in the last election.
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