Supreme Court Reinstates Alabama's Struck Congressional Map for 2026 Midterms
On June 2, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 4-page, unsigned emergency order (a stay) in Allen v. Milligan (along with companion cases Allen v. Singleton and Allen v. Caster), allowing Alabama to use its 2023 congressional map for the upcoming 2026 midterm elections. This map had been struck down just one week earlier, on May 26, 2026, by a three-judge federal district court that found it to be a racially discriminatory gerrymander that intentionally diluted the voting power of Black residents in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Supreme Court's majority stayed the lower court's injunction, holding that the district court had misapplied the high court's recent landmark decision in Louisiana v. Callais (decided April 29, 2026), which gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). In the stay, the majority criticized the district court for failing to presume the state legislature acted in good faith, and instead interpreting the state's legal disagreement with the court as evidence of discriminatory intent. Additionally, the majority invoked the Purcell principle—which cautions federal courts against altering election rules on the eve of an election—while explicitly exempting state governments from the same restriction.
The ruling marks a significant retreat by the federal judiciary from policing racial gerrymandering, signaling to states that they have broad latitude to enact and defend maps that dilute minority voting strength for the 2026 cycle.