Supreme Court lets Alabama use map that eliminates a majority-Black House district

A divided U.S. Supreme Court has allowed Alabama to use a Republican-friendly congressional map that eliminates one of the state’s two majority-Black House districts, handing Republicans a major win ahead of the November midterms. The decision lets the state proceed with a map that could strengthen GOP prospects in Alabama while the broader fight over racial gerrymandering continues.

According to Bloomberg, the court’s action reinstated a map that had been challenged for diluting Black voting power, after lower-court rulings had blocked its use. The dispute centers on whether Alabama must draw a second district in which Black voters have a meaningful opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice, a requirement rooted in the federal Voting Rights Act and the Constitution’s protections against racial discrimination in redistricting.

The Alabama case has become one of the most closely watched redistricting battles in the country because it sits at the intersection of race, representation, and partisan control of Congress. Alabama’s Black population is large enough to justify more than one influential district under the plaintiffs’ arguments, and voting-rights advocates have said the map weakens Black political power by packing those voters into too few districts.

The Supreme Court’s decision means Alabama can use the challenged map for this election cycle unless it is later changed through further litigation or legislative action. That gives Republicans an immediate advantage in the state’s House delegation and could influence the balance of power in the narrowly divided chamber.

The ruling also comes amid a broader political backdrop of escalating tensions between the United States and Iran, with the two countries exchanging strikes, according to Bloomberg’s broader news coverage of the day. The Alabama map fight, however, is the more direct domestic political development, because it affects how congressional seats are drawn and who can win them in November.

The case is likely to remain a focal point in national debates over redistricting, voting rights, and the Supreme Court’s role in settling disputes that shape the makeup of Congress.