Sotomayor Warns of ‘Chaotic Election’ in Supreme Court’s Latest Redistricting Decision

The Supreme Court allowed Alabama’s congressional map to go into effect in an unsigned order Tuesday night, in what could be the closing chapter of the redistricting drama leading to the 2026 midterm elections.

A 6-3 court majority determined that Alabama was likely to succeed in its legal arguments in defense of its new map, based on the high court’s ruling in April in the case of Louisiana v. Callais. In that decision, the court held that a Louisiana congressional district’s boundaries relied too much on race.

A lower court had held that Alabama’s map would discriminate against Black voters in violation of the 14th Amendment by eliminating one of two majority-Black districts.

The Supreme Court’s unsigned order came after 9 p.m. Tuesday and noted that past precedent cautioned federal courts against altering election rules on the eve of an election.

“Here, the District Court interposed itself into Alabama’s ongoing efforts to conduct its imminent 2026 congressional elections under maps that its elected representatives selected,” the majority opinion said. “Its view that conducting the elections under court-imposed maps would be more convenient for the State was not a valid justification for that intervention.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissenting opinion, claiming the majority “disregards both democratic values and the rule of law” in a decision that would lead to a “chaotic election, held under a never-before-used congressional map that intentionally discriminates against Black Alabamians.”

Sotomayor was joined by liberal Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson in the dissent.

The Supreme Court determined in the Louisiana case that race cannot be the leading reason for creating congressional and state legislative districts, except in cases of compelling interest. Louisiana’s creation of a new majority-minority district was not justified by a compelling interest, the court held.

The high court has allowed Texas’ redrawn congressional map favoring Republicans to go into effect, and in February declined to take up a challenge to California’s redrawn map that favored Democrats.

The Supreme Court in May rejected a bid by Virignia Democrats to overturn a state supreme court ruling that struck down the state’s gerrymandered map.

A Florida state court recently upheld the state’s new congressional map favoring Republicans. In Missouri, the state Supreme Court allowed a congressional map approved by the Republican-controlled state Legislature last year to go into effect, although that map may still be the subject of a potential referendum later this year.