The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for Alabama Republicans to remove the state’s second majority-Black congressional district for the midterms, handing the party a pickup opportunity in an apparent 6-3 vote. Alabama chastised a lower court for keeping its map blocked, insisting it should move ahead in the wake of the Supreme Court…
The Supreme Court cleared the way for Alabama to use a House map that is more favorable to Republicans, despite a lower court finding that the plan intentionally discriminated against Black voters.
A federal appeals court sharply questioned lawyers for the city of Philadelphia on Tuesday over their lawsuit seeking to restore a slavery exhibit to the President’s House site in the city, which is operated by the federal government. A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit heard arguments in a […]
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor took her colleagues to task in a new dissenting opinion on Tuesday, arguing that they evaded the core questions raised in an election case and that their analysis of the facts was "wrong twice over."The case involved Alabama using a congressional map that a lower court found was intentionally designed to dilute Black voting power. Joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sotomayor accused the majority of choosing chaos over democracy and of rewarding Alabama's years-long defiance of court orders.Sotomayor noted that the majority's opinion did not grapple with the lower court's finding of intentional discrimination against Black voters even though the "record is crystal clear."She also called out her colleagues for misinterpreting their own ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, a case that allowed states to gerrymander their maps for partisan purposes even if it had a racially discriminatory effect. Instead, Sotomayor argued that her colleagues chose to "disregard both democratic values and the rule of law." "The majority’s order grapples with virtually none of this," Sotomayor wrote. "Indeed, it does not even acknowledge that the DistrictCourt’s discriminatory-intent finding is reviewed for clear error. Much of its reasoning rests on its assertion that, even as to the plaintiffs’ Fourteenth Amendment claim, 'the District Court’s analysis departed from Callais.' Ante, at 3. That is wrong twice over."
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst is not running for reelection, and Democrats have been increasingly bullish about their chances of flipping the seat in recent months.
The order gives another boost to Republican efforts to retain control of the House in the midterm elections.
A divided US Supreme Court reinstated a Republican-friendly congressional map in Alabama, letting the state eliminate a majority-Black House district for the November midterms.
The Trump administration has formally appealed a judge’s order compelling customs authorities to refund all importers who paid the $166 billion in global tariffs that the US Supreme Court declared unlawful earlier this year.
The ruling means that Alabama's 2026 midterm elections will feature six Republican-leaning districts and one Democratic-leaning one.