Federal court blocks Alabama from using GOP-drawn congressional map

A three-judge panel on Tuesday blocked a Republican-drawn congressional map in Alabama from going into effect, writing that the district lines “intentionally discriminated based on race in violation of the Constitution.”

“We cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the panel of federal judges wrote.

The decision is a setback for Republicans, who sought to enact the map after a major redistricting ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court last month. The map would eliminate one of Alabama’s two majority-minority districts, putting the GOP in position to gain a seat in this year’s midterm elections.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said the state would “immediately appeal” the decision to the Supreme Court.

“Know this—in my mind, it is not a matter of whether we win this case, only when,” Marshall said in a statement.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey scheduled a second primary date in August for the districts affected by the Republican-drawn map. Other primaries were were held in the state on May 19.

“The Legislature well knew that a plan without an additional Black-opportunity district would dilute Black Alabamians’ opportunity to participate in the political process, and it intentionally enacted that very plan,” the panel wrote. “Further, the Legislature well knew what dilutive mechanisms would prevent Black voters in Alabama’s Black Belt and Gulf Coast communities from having any opportunity to elect representatives of their choice, and the Legislature employed precisely those mechanisms.”

The state has spent years feuding with the courts over its congressional map.

The 2023 map was drawn by Republican legislators who defied a federal court’s order — which was affirmed by the Supreme Court — to create two districts in which Black voters make up voting-age majorities, “or something quite close to it.”

Alabama Republicans instead chose to pass a new map with just one majority-Black seat and a second district that is approximately 40% Black. In response, the court put its own map in place, which was used in the 2024 election.

After that ruling, the Supreme Court sent Alabama’s map case back to the federal court for reconsideration. But the map was originally challenged under both the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment, and the court confirmed it still stood by its ruling that the map violated the 14th Amendment.

Alabama is one of several GOP-led states in the South that have rushed to attempt to implement new congressional maps for the midterms after the Supreme Court gutted a key section of the Voting Right Act, paving the way for the elimination of majority-minority districts represented by Democrats.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com