NEW: Supreme Court's Alabama redistricting ruling marks brazen reversal of its previous stance [View all]
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/supreme-courts-alabama-redistricting-ruling-marks-brazen-reversal-of-its-previous-stance/
The U.S. Supreme Courts Republican-appointed majority erased all doubts about the sweeping nature of its recent voting rights jurisprudence Tuesday night with a shadow docket ruling that effectively reverses the Courts own decision in the same matter just three years ago.
The unsigned emergency order in Allen v. Milligan goes beyond the courts recentLouisiana v. Callais decision, which merely nullified the Voting Rights Acts (VRA) prohibition on unintentional racial discrimination, to also make it all but impossible for judges to strike down a map as intentionally discriminatory.
It does so by essentially flipping its own 2023 ruling in the same case.
In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor excoriated that decision to go down the path that disregards both democratic values and the rule of law, leading to a chaotic election, held under a never-before-used congressional map that intentionally discriminates against Black Alabamians, that Alabama adopted in unashamed defiance of a prior court order directly affirmed by this Court, and that will require officials to change the voter registrations of hundreds of thousands of voters in just days at best, a task that Alabama previously represented would take months.
Sotomayor noted that Tuesdays decision was the third time Alabamas congressional map had found its way before the high bench, lamenting that [e]ach turn reveals just how unconscionable the Courts action is today.
NEW: The Supreme Court yesterday went beyond its recent ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act, making it all but impossible for courts to strike down a map as intentionally discriminatory.
And it did so by essentially contradicting its own 2023 ruling â in the same case.
Jim Saksa explainsð
— Democracy Docket (@democracydocket.com) 2026-06-03T16:06:19.748474447Z