Alabama Gov. Ivey Calls Special Session on Districts

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced Friday that the state legislature will convene in a special session starting Monday at 4 p.m. in Montgomery to prepare legislation for special primary elections in U.S. House and state Senate districts potentially altered by court orders. The move follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this week in Louisiana v. Callais that struck down a majority-Black congressional district there.

The session aims to address contingencies if the Supreme Court lifts an injunction from its prior decision in Allen v. Milligan, which required Alabama to use a court-ordered congressional map creating a second district with a sizable Black population. That map, in place until after the 2030 census, helped elect two Democrats to the state's seven-member U.S. House delegation, alongside five Republicans. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed an emergency motion Thursday urging the court to expedite review and allow use of a 2023 legislative map, which had been blocked.

In her proclamation, Ivey directed lawmakers to consider bills enabling special primaries for affected districts ahead of the state's May 19 primary. "By calling the Legislature into a...