Red state begs Clarence Thomas to gut court-ordered Black district days before primary

Alabama officials have filed an emergency motion to the Supreme Court, asking for it to lift a federal court order that prohibits the state from redistricting until the next scheduled Census.

The motion goes specifically to Justice Clarence Thomas, a far-right jurist who oversees such requests when they come from within the 11th Circuit.

In its prior Allen v. Milligan ruling, the Supreme Court upheld lower court decisions that found Alabama's original map with six majority-white districts and one majority-Black district was a racial gerrymander, ordering them to redraw the map to include a second district that gives Black voters representation. Alabama attempted a redraw that fixed none of the underlying issues and retained six majority-white districts, after which a court stepped in and imposed a map with two majority-Black districts.

Alabama officials' new filing asks the Supreme Court to intervene in light of their ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which significantly limited the use of the Voting Rights Act to police racial gerrymanders in cases where partisan gerrymandering cannot be ruled out. However, the majority in the Callais decision specifically said it did not overturn the Milligan decision.

If Alabama were to be granted this relief, they would be allowed to use their rejected remedial map, which would again eliminate one majority-Black district in the state and, by extension, almost certainly pick up a seat for Republicans.

It would also potentially let GOP lawmakers in Alabama reconvene to redraw their maps to eliminate majority-Black districts altogether, as Republicans are doing in Tennessee and considering in South Carolina.