Allen v. Milligan (2023)

After the 2020 census, Alabama drew a congressional map with one majority-Black district out of seven, although Black residents made up about 27 percent of the state's population. Black voters and civil rights groups sued under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and a three-judge federal court found that the map likely diluted Black votes and ordered a second opportunity district.

On June 8, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4, in an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, that the lower court had correctly applied the Thornburg v. Gingles framework and that Alabama's map likely violated Section 2. The Court rejected Alabama's proposal for a race-blind benchmark test. Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the majority but noted that the authority to use race in districting may not extend indefinitely into the future. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the principal dissent.

Alabama's legislature responded with a new map that still had only one majority-Black district, and the lower court rejected it and imposed its own map, under which a second district elected a Black Democrat in 2024. The ruling was widely seen as a surprise preservation of Section 2, but in Louisiana v. Callais in April 2026 the Court narrowed the framework, and Alabama then enacted a map removing the second district, which the Supreme Court allowed to take effect.