Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama said on Friday she would summon lawmakers to consider a new congressional map under the newly weakened Voting Rights Act, but acknowledged legislators could act only if the Supreme Court clears the way.
Ms. Ivey’s call for a special session may not affect the 2026 midterm elections, but it was the first step taken by a state not directly affected by this week’s Supreme Court decision that further eroded the law. That decision rejected Louisiana’s congressional map as an illegal racial gerrymander.
Alabama has longstanding court battles over its congressional map and whether Black voters have had their power undermined. On Thursday, Ms. Ivey had said adopting a new map was impossible before November, because a federal court order bars the state from using new district lines until after the 2030 census.
Later that day, Alabama’s attorney general, Steve Marshall, asked the Supreme Court to let lawmakers revisit the map. Mr. Marshall filed motions in three redistricting cases pending before the court, asking the justices to lift lower court orders preventing that.
In her statement, Ms. Ivey said she wants legislators to be in position to move quickly. She suggested that if the Supreme Court allowed, the state would return to a congressional map previously approved in 2023 and a state senate map approved in 2021.
In the filings, Mr. Marshall argued that the lower court rulings “cannot be reconciled” with the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Voting Rights Act this week, which set a high bar for drawing district lines for the benefit of racial or ethnic minorities. He argued that “expedited consideration is necessary to afford Alabama the same opportunity as other states to use a lawfully enacted congressional map.”
The court has yet to respond to the motions, but the special session of the legislature is still scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. on Monday.
A federal court rejected the congressional map that Ms. Ivey now wants adopted because it failed to comply with orders to create a second majority-Black district or something “close to it.” Instead, an independent map drawn by a court-appointed official created a second majority-Black district that stretches from the state capital of Montgomery to parts of the coastal city of Mobile.
That seat is currently held by Representative Shomari Figures, a Democrat. His election in 2024, along with the re-election of Representative Terri Sewell, marked the first time that Alabama had sent two Black representatives in Congress at the same time.
Ms. Ivey also said that she would call on lawmakers to set a special primary election for the House in districts affected by the court ruling. Alabama’s primary is currently scheduled for May 19.
“While there are no guarantees that Alabama’s now unlawful, court-mandated roadblock will be removed in time, we have a responsibility to give our state a fighting chance to send seven republican members to Congress,” said House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter and Garlan Gudger, Jr., the head of the Alabama Senate, in a joint statement.
They continued, “Control of the U.S. House of Representatives could come down to just a handful of seats, and when the dust settles, the people of Alabama will know that their Legislature stood firm, acted decisively, and did everything within its power to fight for fair representation.”
Eduardo Medina contributed reporting.
Emily Cochrane is a national reporter for The Times covering the American South, based in Nashville.
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