{"id":617816,"date":"2026-05-01T19:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T19:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/617816\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T19:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T19:18:09","slug":"gov-ivey-calls-special-session-on-alabama-redistricting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/617816\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Ivey calls special session on Alabama redistricting"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA<\/a>) – Alabama will become the latest state to jump into the mid-decade redistricting race as Gov. Kay Ivey calls legislators back to Montgomery for a special session.<\/p>\n

The move comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, struck down Louisiana\u2019s second majority Black congressional district, dealing a significant blow to enforcement of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.<\/p>\n

Ivey initially pushed back on the idea of Alabama redistricting its map, saying that she was \u201cencouraged\u201d but that \u201cAlabama is currently under a court order prohibiting the use of new congressional districts until after the 2030 census.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen filed emergency motions Thursday afternoon<\/a> seeking to lift injunctions on three Alabama redistricting cases.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Ivey reversed course on her previous statements<\/a> and called a special session of the Alabama Legislature in order to redraw the state\u2019s congressional districts in a way that would benefit the state\u2019s Republican majority.<\/p>\n

The GOP currently holds five of the state\u2019s seven congressional seats, down one following the court ordered creation of a second majority-Black district. Last August, a three-judge panel in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ruled that\u00a0Alabama must continue to use the court-ordered congressional map<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before the Milligan v. Allen ruling and the court-drawn map, Alabama Republicans held six of the state\u2019s seven congressional district seats for decades despite Black residents making up more than 25 percent of the state\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

Ivey\u2019s special session will start on Monday, and she says she wants to see it \u201ccompleted within five days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring this special session, I have called on the Legislature to address legislation to provide for a special primary election for electing members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Alabama State Senate in districts whose boundary lines are altered by court action,\u201d Ivey said.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s full statement reads: <\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the successful 2020 census, Alabama maintained our representation in Congress, and I called a special session to redraw our maps. Since then, we have been battling federal courts and activist groups who think they know Alabama better than Alabama.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, however, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a positive decision in the\u00a0Louisiana v. Callais\u00a0case, which I said was encouraging for our own pending litigation. I also acknowledged that Alabama\u2019s redistricting battle is not over. The state remains under a court order prohibiting the use of new congressional maps until after the 2030 census.<\/p>\n

While we were not yet in position to call a special session earlier this week, I said we needed to keep up our fight in the courts. Immediately, Attorney General Steve Marshall filed emergency motions at the U.S. Supreme Court regarding Alabama\u2019s redistricting case. As I said following the emergency motions being filed, I remain hopeful Alabama will receive a favorable outcome from the U.S. Supreme Court, which is why I am now calling a special session of the Alabama Legislature.<\/p>\n

By calling the Legislature into a special session, I am ensuring Alabama is prepared should the courts act quickly enough to allow Alabama\u2019s previously drawn congressional and state senate maps to be used during this election cycle. If the court-ordered injunction is lifted, Alabama would revert to the maps drawn by the Legislature for congressional districts in 2023 and state senate districts in 2021.<\/p>\n

During this special session, I have called on the Legislature to address legislation to provide for a special primary election for electing members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Alabama State Senate in districts whose boundary lines are altered by court action.<\/p>\n

I expect the Legislature to address this call in fast order and be completed within five days.<\/p>\n

As I continue saying, Alabama knows our state, our people and our districts best.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s full proclamation states:<\/p>\n

\"Gov.Gov. Kay Ivey’s proclamation calling a special session of the Alabama Legislature to consider redrawing of the state’s congressional districts.(Source: Alabama Governor’s Press Office)REACTION<\/p>\n

WSFA 12 News has reached out to the offices of Rep. Shomari Figures, District 2, and Terri Sewell, District 7, Alabama\u2019s two Democratic members of Congress, for reaction.<\/p>\n

Figures has responded saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fully expected Republican efforts to try to get the courts to ignore the findings made by three Republican-appointed judges, including two appointed by Donald Trump. The judges unanimously found that the State of Alabama intentionally discriminated against Black voters when they drew the district maps after the 2020 census and subsequently refused to follow court orders to correct the issue. Now, the state is essentially asking the courts to close their eyes and forget what they already saw. This same Supreme Court has already upheld the findings in this case once, and we are confident the courts will uphold the law again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Alabama GOP is praising the governor\u2019s decision saying: <\/p>\n

\u201cWe applaud Governor Kay Ivey for her leadership in calling the Legislature back into session as Alabama takes the next step following the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in\u00a0Louisiana v. Callais. This ruling reinforced what we have long argued \u2014 that redistricting should be guided by fair, constitutional principles and not driven by race.<\/p>\n

Governor Ivey\u2019s action reaffirms that Alabama leaders are united in defending our state\u2019s right to determine our own districts. Alabama knows our people, our communities, and our state better than federal courts or outside activist groups.<\/p>\n

We remain confident that the courts will apply the\u00a0Callais\u00a0decision to Alabama\u2019s case and that the map enacted by the people\u2019s representatives in the Legislature will ultimately prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is breaking news that is being updated.<\/p>\n

Not reading this story on the WSFA News App? Get news alerts FASTER and FREE in the Apple App Store<\/a> and the Google Play Store<\/a>! <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WSFA. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – Alabama will become the latest state to jump into the mid-decade redistricting race as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5183,4,450,267965,451,3,84017,452,453],"class_list":["post-617816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-alabama","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-congressional-maps","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-special-session","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}