Trump-Appointed Judges Deal Blow to President By Blocking Alabama's GOP-Favoring Congressional Map as Intentionally Discriminatory'

A three-judge panel invalidated Alabama’s redistricted congressional map, finding intentional discrimination. The ruling came as midterm elections approached and as President Donald Trump encouraged GOP-majority states to redraw districts mid-decade to create more Republican-leaning House seats. States have redrawn lines through different legal routes, including executive orders, legislative bills, and ballot initiatives. The outcome of new lines remains uncertain, with concerns that districts relied on overly optimistic assumptions about sustaining Republican performance. Alabama’s 2023 map reduced majority-minority districts from two to one. The case has returned multiple times to the Supreme Court, and the appellate review followed the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which barred racial gerrymandering under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

"A three-judge panel two of whom were appointed by President Donald Trump shot down Alabama's redistricted congressional map in a ruling released Tuesday after finding it to be intentionally discriminatory."

"In that opinion, the nation's highest court banned racial gerrymandering whether done to create more or fewer majority-minority districts or to benefit or dilute minority voters pursuant to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The VRA neither required nor allowed drawing district lines based on race, the Supreme Court held."

"This case in Alabama actually involves a redistricted map passed by the GOP-majority Alabama legislature in 2023 that reduced the number of majority-minority districts in the state from two to one. The ongoing litigation has already traveled back and forth from the Supreme Court a few times, and the appellate undertook a thoroughly detailed review of the case in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Louisiana v. Callais earlier this year."

"It's far from certain how the new district lines will truly play out in the midterms several Republicans have expressed concerns that districts were drawn based on overly optimistic numbers from Trump's 2024 victory that polls show the GOP may not be able to sustain in November and numerous lawsuits have been filed across the country."

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