Federal court blocks Alabama map stripping Black-majority district

A federal court has halted Alabama’s new congressional map, issuing a preliminary injunction that keeps the state using its 2024 map while the legal fight continues. The three-judge panel said the redrawing was an intentional effort to “crack the Black populat

The order came with a blunt message: Alabama can’t switch maps yet.

A federal court blocked the state’s new congressional map that was designed to give Republicans an edge during the midterms. issuing a preliminary injunction that temporarily prevents Alabama from replacing its existing lines. The ruling requires the state to use the map Alabama used in 2024 while the case moves forward.

In a decision issued by a three-judge panel. the court said the new map “represents an intentional effort to crack the Black population in Alabama.” The panel pointed to the fact that the plan redrew a district that had elected a Black representative—language and intent that made the court’s concern unmistakable.

For now, the change remains on pause. Five white Republicans and two Black Democrats currently represent Alabama in Congress, and the court’s temporary halt keeps that configuration intact for the next phase of the political fight.

The people asking the court to intervene are Black voters who sought the injunction after arguing the state’s plan mirrors the kind of discriminatory redistricting the court already condemned in 2023. In that earlier finding. the court held the map was intentionally discriminatory. and the latest request returned to the same core accusation.

Lawyers representing the voters argued Alabama was trying to create chaos by redistricting in an election year—an effort that would, in their view, make it harder for voters to navigate a constantly shifting political landscape just when elections are approaching.

The delay matters politically. The ruling pushes back Alabama’s plan for Republicans to reclaim the seat now held by Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures. But the injunction is only preliminary, and the state can appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The case sits inside a wider political and legal struggle over congressional maps across the South. The redistricting saga traces back to the U.S. Supreme Court’s striking down of a Black-majority district in Louisiana—an outcome that weakened the Voting Rights Act. After that decision. Republicans in many Southern states began redrawing districts with an eye toward strengthening their positions in the midterms.

Alabama’s fight, while rooted in years of redistricting work, has also become part of a broader campaign that began after President Donald Trump pushed Texas Republicans to draw new districts intended to give the GOP an advantage during the midterms.

As that strategy spread, other states moved to support Trump’s redistricting plans, including Tennessee and Louisiana. Florida—another large state that could swing the midterms in Republicans’ favor—also approved a new map.

Democrats, for their part, have redrawn districts too, though with mixed results. In California, voters approved a new map that would likely give Democrats more seats. In Virginia, voters narrowly approved a similar plan, but it was struck down by the state’s Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal.

In Alabama. the court’s injunction keeps the state tied to the 2024 map for the time being. turning what was meant to be a midterm advantage into a legal standoff. Whether Alabama can successfully appeal—potentially all the way to the Supreme Court—will determine how long the state remains frozen and how quickly Republicans can press their push to win back the seat held by Rep. Shomari Figures.

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