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  • Trump-appointed judges joined a Reagan-pedigreed senior judge to block Alabama map as intentional race discrimination
  • Twelve South Carolina Republicans joined Democrats to kill the Clyburn-district redraw
  • Both rebuffs read the Callais ruling more narrowly than the White House does

MONTGOMERY, AL (TDR) — A federal three-judge panel and twelve South Carolina Republican state senators delivered same-day blows Tuesday to President Donald Trump's mid-decade redistricting push, with the Alabama panel ruling the state's GOP-drawn map "intentionally discriminated based on race."

The big picture: The setbacks came hours apart and from inside the Republican coalition itself.

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  • Alabama panel: Judges Anna Manasco and Terry Moorer (both Trump appointees) joined senior Judge Stanley Marcus on the preliminary injunction
  • South Carolina: 12 Republican senators voted with Democrats to block a map that would have voided the June 9 primary and reshaped Rep. James Clyburn's majority-Black district
  • Both moves came after Trump personally lobbied Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey

Why it matters: The Trump White House has been treating the Supreme Court's April 29 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais as a green light to dismantle majority-minority districts before the midterms.

  • The Alabama panel's reading suggests Callais didn't go that far
  • House majority math runs through these seats; Republicans hold a slim margin and want several seats from redistricting alone
  • Twelve Republicans publicly siding against their party's map is unusual

Driving the news: The Alabama injunction came in a 225-page ruling tying directly to a 2023 finding the same panel already made.

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  • Panel said the legislature "made a calculated, purposeful decision to refuse to provide the remedy" the court ordered in 2023
  • South Carolina House had passed the new map; Trump made at least two calls to Massey and phoned a private senators' meeting
  • A motion to end debate failed when 12 Republicans joined Democrats against the map

What they're saying:

  • Alabama three-judge panel — "We cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination."
  • Rep. James Clyburn, D-SC — "I'm OK if it's Trump plus 20. I would be running where I live."

Yes, but: The Callais doctrine genuinely did narrow Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and the legal fight isn't settled.

Close

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  • The 6-3 Alito opinion reworked the 40-year-old Thornburg v. Gingles framework, making Section 2 cases harder for plaintiffs
  • Alabama's attorney general is appealing; the case is likely SCOTUS-bound again
  • Some SC Republicans who voted no cited concerns the aggressive redraw could backfire by pushing Democratic voters into currently safe GOP seats, not principle on race

Between the lines: Both tribes read Callais as more decisive than the lower courts and GOP's own elected officials are willing to treat it. The White House and Republican legislatures in Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Louisiana are operating as if SCOTUS handed them a permission slip to dismantle Black-majority districts. Two Trump-appointed judges and twelve SC Republican senators just said it didn't. Democrats frame Callais as the death of the Voting Rights Act, which obscures that the Alabama panel found a path inside the new doctrine to block the map. The fight won't settle until SCOTUS rules on what Callais actually meant.

What's next:

  • Alabama AG appealing to the Supreme Court on the preliminary injunction
  • South Carolina map could return in revised form; the state House version remains technically alive
  • Louisiana primaries postponed; Tennessee map already enacted carving up a Memphis Black-majority seat

If the Voting Rights Act fight returns to SCOTUS, who decides what Callais actually meant: the Republican-appointed judges who just read it narrowly, or the Republican-appointed Supreme Court that wrote it?

Sources

This report was compiled using reporting from NBC News, CNN, CBS News, WAFF, PBS NewsHour, CNBC, Bloomberg, The Philadelphia Inquirer, SCOTUSblog, and the Library of Congress.

 

 

 

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