Federal Judge Orders Redraw of Alabama State Senate Map — For Montgomery, Not Huntsville

A federal judge has ruled that Alabama’s current State Senate map violates the Voting Rights Act by diminishing Black voters’ influence in and around the Montgomery area. The State is barred from using this map for the 2026 elections unless the Legislature redraws it to include a new district where Black voters form a voting-age majority or come very close.

Judge Anna M. Manasco delivered the ruling Friday. She emphasized that the Legislature has the first opportunity to draw a fair map. If lawmakers fail to act under the Court’s guidelines, the Court will impose its own district plan.

In her 261-page ruling, Judge Manasco wrote:

“The appropriate remedy is a redistricting plan that includes either an additional majority-Black Senate district in the Montgomery area, or an additional district there in which Black voters otherwise have an opportunity to elect a senator of their choice.”

The Court rejected a claim that the Huntsville-area map also violates the Voting Rights Act. It found that the Black population in that region is too dispersed to form a compact district.

Benard Simelton, President of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP and one of the plaintiffs, said:

“This decision proves that when we challenge injustice, we can make progress. Alabama must now draw fairer districts in Montgomery, but let’s be clear—leaving Huntsville untouched still denies many Black Alabamians their rightful representation.”

Davin Rosborough, Deputy Director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, added:

“We are pleased that the Court recognized the injustice in Montgomery and is requiring Alabama to fix its unlawful redistricting. While we are disappointed that Black voters in Huntsville will continue to be denied fair representation, the fight is far from over.”

Deuel Ross, Litigation Director at the Legal Defense Fund, also weighed in:

“Today’s decision is a hard-fought victory for Black voters in Montgomery who deserve fair representation in the Alabama Senate. The Court’s decision recognizes that, even today, the State continues its terrible history of discriminating against Black voters.”

Jack Genberg, Senior Supervising Attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, remarked:

“This decision isn’t simply a victory for Black voters in Alabama, but all voters in the state.… It underscores the urgent need to reform our redistricting process and restore meaningful voter participation to ensure fair and equitable rights for all people of this state.”

State Senate Majority Leader Steve Livingston reacted with measured optimism:

“At this time, we are pleased with the Court’s ruling in the Huntsville area and disappointed by the ruling in the Montgomery area. We will determine next steps after a thorough review of the opinion in the coming days.”

It’s not yet clear whether State Attorney General Steve Marshall will appeal this most recent order. If lawmakers have not produced a court-compliant map before the 2026 elections, the Court will step in and redraw the districts itself.

These new court orders are the latest chapter in a long legal battle over Alabama’s redistricting that began with Allen v. Milligan, a 2021 lawsuit challenging Alabama’s congressional map for having only one majority-Black seat despite Black residents making up roughly 27% of the State’s population. A three-judge panel agreed and ordered a second majority-Black district—or at least one where Black voters had a fair chance to win—by early 2022.

Alabama pushed back and drew a new map in 2023 with still only one such district. The Court rejected it, labeling it a defiance of clear orders. A specially appointed mapmaker then drew alternatives. One of those was adopted—yielding two districts where Black voters could choose their preferred candidates. That map led to the election of Shomari Figures, giving Alabama two Black members in its congressional delegation for the first time ever.

But the legal fight didn’t end there. In May 2025, the same three-judge panel ruled that Alabama’s 2023 legislature-drawn map was enacted with discriminatory intent and didn’t meet Voting Rights Act requirements.

By August 2025, the panel went further. It barred Alabama from using the 2023 map and ordered use of the court-selected map—the one that created the second majority-Black district—through the end of the decade, until the 2030 Census, while they retained oversight. The court also declined to return Alabama to preclearance—a heightened federal review of new maps under the Voting Rights Act—calling such oversight “excessively intrusive.“

While some hailed Judge Manasco’s most recent decision as a lasting gain for Black voters and a safeguard for fair representation through 2030, others pointed out that it may all be for naught.

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently reviewing a high-stakes case from Louisiana—Louisiana v. Callais—that asks whether creating a second majority-Black congressional district actually violates the Constitution. The justices have asked for fresh legal briefs on whether such race-conscious fixes breach the 14th or 15th Amendments.

If the Court rules that drawing districts with race as a central factor is unconstitutional, it could undo not only Louisiana’s map but also the legal basis behind Alabama’s Milligan-derived remedies. The Alabama GOP has already signaled its intent to support such an outcome.  The Alabama Republican Party’s General Counsel, David Bowsher, announced at the ALGOP Executive Committee Summer Meeting  that ALGOP planned to file an amicus brief backing the argument that race-based "fixes" may themselves violate the Voting Rights Act.

Depending on how SCOTUS rules on Callais, Alabama’s hard-fought, court-enforced changes could be short-lived. A ruling against such redistricting could upend the logic behind the most recent order and shift the terrain of voting rights litigation for years to come—not to mention giving the Alabama Legislature yet another opportunity to redraw the maps.

Images used in cover art from preppingmeat.com, redistrictingonline.com