The Supreme Court's 6-3 order vacates Alabama's court-ordered redistricting map, directing reconsideration under the new Callais VRA standard before the 2026 midterms.
The Supreme Court issued a 6-3 order on May 11 vacating an injunction that had required Alabama to use a court-drawn congressional map containing two majority-Black districts [1]. The Court directed the district court to reconsider the matter in light of its April 29 decision in Callais, which raised the evidentiary threshold plaintiffs must clear to sustain a Section 2 Voting Rights Act challenge [1]. The order landed while voting was already underway for Alabama's May 19 primary, compressing any practical window for map changes before Election Day [2].
The case traces back to Allen v. Milligan, in which the Supreme Court held in 2023 that Alabama's seven-district congressional map likely diluted Black voting strength in violation of Section 2 [1]. A three-judge district court subsequently imposed a remedial map featuring two majority-Black districts after the Republican-controlled legislature declined to produce a compliant plan [1]. That court-ordered map was the injunction the May 11 order vacated. The case returns to the district court for reconsideration under the Callais standard, which observers have characterized as a materially harder bar for VRA plaintiffs to clear [3]. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the majority order [2].
The ruling's significance extends well beyond Alabama. By vacating an already-implemented remedial map at this stage of the electoral calendar, the Court signaled that Callais applies with immediate, retroactive force to redistricting arrangements currently in effect under prior judicial orders [1]. That means other states facing court-mandated majority-minority districts could seek similar relief, potentially reshaping multiple congressional delegations ahead of the 2026 midterms [3]. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which has been central to the VRA litigation, has not yet indicated its next steps publicly [1].
Governor Kay Ivey signaled she would call a special election in affected districts to permit redistricting before November, a procedural mechanism that would allow the legislature to draw new lines outside the regular primary calendar [2]. The Alabama Legislature would then need to convene, pass a new map, and have that map survive any renewed legal challenge within a tight pre-midterm window [1]. Civil rights advocates and voting-rights litigators are watching the district court's next move closely, as its reading of Callais on remand could set a template for how trial courts nationwide apply the new evidentiary standard to pending and future Section 2 cases [3].