Federal judges blocked Alabama Republicans' attempt to eliminate a heavily Black congressional district on May 26, 2026. Alabama then asked the Supreme Court to allow the congressional map that dilutes Black voting power. Southern Republicans moved swiftly following the Supreme Court's Louisiana v. Callais ruling to remove Black lawmakers from Congress through redistricting at congressional, state legislative, and local levels.
Alabama redistricting legal battles
- ▪Federal judges blocked an attempt by Alabama Republicans to eliminate a heavily Black congressional district on May 26, 2026
- ▪Alabama asked the Supreme Court to allow a congressional map that dilutes Black voting power
Southern Republican antidemocratic agenda
- ▪Louisiana legislators voted to eliminate a position in New Orleans after a Black Democrat won the position
- ▪Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been suspending locally elected prosecutors if Ron DeSantis doesn't approve of their practices
- ▪Republicans gradually won control of state legislatures and governor's offices in most Southern states in a process that started in the late 1990s and accelerated during Barack Obama's presidency
- ▪Michael Podhorzer wrote that Southern states are now nearly as red as Southern states were blue during the Jim Crow era
- ▪Michael Podhorzer is a former AFL-CIO political director and author
- ▪Georgia Republicans are rushing to gerrymander the state because Georgia Republicans fear Democrat Keisha Bottoms will be elected in November 2026
- ▪Receiving gender-affirming health care for people under 18 is banned in many states in the South
- ▪GOP politicians in South Carolina opted not to eliminate longtime Representative James Clyburn's district on May 26, 2026
- ▪Southern Republicans moved swiftly to remove as many Black lawmakers from Congress as possible following the Supreme Court's Louisiana v. Callais ruling
- ▪Georgia Governor Brian Kemp canceled a state Supreme Court election
- ▪Republicans in the South are using the Louisiana v. Callais ruling for redistricting at the City Council, state legislative, and judicial levels in ways that will force African American politicians out of office
- ▪Teaching critical race theory in a classroom is banned in many states in the South
- ▪Getting an abortion is banned in many states in the South
Voting Rights Act erosion
- ▪Freedom House argued that checks and balances on the executive and other core characteristics of liberal democracy have diminished in the United States
- ▪Freedom House downgraded the United States from a full "liberal democracy" to an "electoral democracy" earlier in 2026
Personal impact in Louisville
- ▪Shameka Parrish-Wright is a Black progressive city councilwoman who was a leader of the protests after Louisville police killed Breonna Taylor six years before 2026
- ▪Shameka Parrish-Wright and incumbent Mayor Craig Greenberg advanced to the general election in Louisville's mayoral primary
- ▪Kentucky Republicans recently passed a law that reduces Louisville's school board from seven to five elected members
Perspective of Southern Republicans
- ▪Southern Republicans moved swiftly to remove as many Black lawmakers from Congress as possible following the Supreme Court's Louisiana v. Callais ruling
- ▪Republicans in the South are using the Louisiana v. Callais ruling for redistricting at the City Council, state legislative, and judicial levels in ways that will force African American politicians out of office
Perspective of Freedom House
- ▪Freedom House argued that checks and balances on the executive and other core characteristics of liberal democracy have diminished in the United States
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