Redistricting battles intensified in states after the US Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act

The Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate a majority-black congressional district in Louisiana amplified an already intense national redistricting battle by providing Republican officials in several states with new reasons to redraw voting districts.

In Alabama, Republican Governor Kay Ivey announced on Friday that she is calling a special legislative session starting on Monday in the hope that the state Supreme Court will allow the map of the US House of Representatives to be changed before the midterm elections in November. In Tennessee, Republican Gov. Bill Lee also announced a special session of the GOP-controlled Legislature to break up the state’s only Democratic-controlled House district, which is centered in the majority-black city of Memphis.

He watches: How the Supreme Court’s Louisiana District decision weakens the Voting Rights Act

Louisiana has already suspended its May 16 congressional primaries to allow lawmakers time to approve new US House districts, though that is being challenged in court. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is pressing other states like Tennessee to redistrict as well ahead of midterm elections that will determine whether Republicans maintain control of the closely divided House.

Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw US House districts to give the party an advantage. California Democrats responded by doing the same. Then other countries joined the battle. Legislators, committees, or courts approved new House districts in eight states.

That total could grow after a Supreme Court decision that significantly weakened a provision of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Here’s a look at how some states responded to the Supreme Court’s ruling:

Louisiana

Map of the current House of Representatives: two Democrats and four Republicans

Early in-person voting was scheduled to begin Saturday in Louisiana’s primary. But Republican Gov. Jeff Landry moved quickly on Thursday to postpone the congressional primary while allowing elections to take place for other offices.

A federal lawsuit filed later Thursday, on behalf of a Democratic congressional candidate and elector, asked the court to block Landry’s order and allow the House primary to proceed as originally scheduled. Two more lawsuits asserting that the congressional primary must go ahead were filed Friday in state court on behalf of voters who have already cast absentee ballots and several civil rights organizations.

Among other things, the lawsuits assert that Landry lacked the authority to suspend the primary, and that thousands of absentee ballots had already been mailed to people, with a large number of them filled out and returned.

Read more: The Supreme Court weakens a landmark civil rights-era voting rights law, aiding GOP efforts to take control of the House

District Court judges in Baton Rouge late Friday denied requests in two of those cases to temporarily block Landry’s executive order.

Separately, a three-judge federal court panel that heard the case that was appealed to the Supreme Court issued an order Thursday suspending Louisiana’s congressional primary.

The state’s Republican House and Senate leaders said they are ready to pass new U.S. House districts — and set a new date for primaries — before their legislative session ends in a month.

Alabama

Map of the current House of Representatives: two Democrats and five Republicans

The state’s primary election is scheduled for May 19. But Alabama officials on Thursday filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court asking for an expedited review of a pending appeal in a redistricting case that could affect the election.

A federal court in 2023 ordered the creation of a new, nearly majority-black district in Alabama, resulting in the election of a second black representative to the U.S. House of Representatives. Alabama is subject to a court order to use the new map until after the next census in 2030.

An appeal pending before the Supreme Court argues that the map is an illegal racial gerrymander, a claim similar to one made in Louisiana.

Read more: Louisiana’s congressional primary has been suspended after the Supreme Court ruling, state officials said

The state is seeking an injunction to block the use of the 2023 map drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature that did not include the new district. The state is making a similar request for two state Senate districts affected by a separate redistricting issue.

Ivey said the special legislative session will focus on a contingency plan to hold a special primary if the Supreme Court moves quickly enough to allow previously drawn Alabama districts to be used this year.

Florida

Map of the current House of Representatives: Eight Democrats, 20 Republicans

Hours after the Supreme Court’s decision, Florida’s Republican-led Legislature approved new US House districts that could help the GOP win up to four additional seats in November.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis called a special legislative session without knowing when the Supreme Court would issue its opinion on the Louisiana case. But DeSantis expressed confidence that the court would rule as it did. Among other things, the new map reconfigures the Southeast Florida district that DeSantis said was created to help elect a black representative in an effort to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act.

He watches: What the justices pointed out in a Supreme Court case could reshape electoral maps

A constitutional amendment approved by Florida voters in 2010 prohibits gerrymandering to deny or reduce the ability of racial or linguistic minorities to elect representatives of their choice. DeSantis said he considers this amendment a violation of the US Constitution. The courts are expected to decide this question.

Tennessee

Lee announced the special session in a statement issued late Friday afternoon, saying, “We owe it to the people of Tennesseans to ensure that our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters.”

This came after a pressure campaign by Trump and other Republicans to remake the state’s 9th Congressional District. Republicans have always been curbed by the Voting Rights Act in their desire to spread Democratic voters in the district around nearby conservative districts and make them winnable, but the law may no longer be an impediment.

The qualifying period for candidates ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for August 6. Democrats noted that in 2022, the state Supreme Court scrutinized additional redistricting because it was too close to the election. They said the court is their best hope this time too.

“We can’t keep doing things like this and calling ourselves a democracy,” Democratic state Sen. Ramesh Akbari said at a news conference outside the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, which houses the shell of the hotel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968.

Mississippi

Map of the current House of Representatives: one Democrat and three Republicans

Mississippi held its primary election for the U.S. House of Representatives in March. But the Supreme Court’s decision may affect elections for other offices.

Republican Governor Tate Reeves announced earlier that he would call a special legislative session to redraw voting districts for the state Supreme Court, which would begin 21 days after the US Supreme Court ruled in the Louisiana case. That would start the special session around May 20.

A federal judge last year ordered Mississippi to redraw voting districts in the Supreme Court after finding they violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the power of black voters. Mississippi lawmakers had been waiting for a decision in the Louisiana case before moving forward, but their legislative session ended in April.

Reeves said in his announcement that the Supreme Court’s decision will provide guidance to lawmakers on whether “race-based redistricting” violates the U.S. Constitution.

Georgia

Map of the current House of Representatives: five Democrats and nine Republicans

Early in-person voting began April 27 and continues for the next few weeks before Georgia’s May 19 primary.

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said it is too late for Georgia officials to try to flip congressional districts in this year’s election, because voting is already underway. But he said the rationale for the Supreme Court’s decision “requires Georgia to adopt new electoral maps before the 2028 election cycle.”

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Associated Press writers Jeff Amy, Jack Brock, Travis Lawler, Nicholas Riccardi and Kim Chandler contributed to this report.