WASHINGTON — A federal court blocked Alabama from using its new congressional map in this fall’s elections, ruling Tuesday that it is still “intentionally discriminatory” against Black voters.

The unanimous decision from a three-judge panel to grant a preliminary injunction adds to the legal drama around the state’s redistricting efforts, part of a flurry of fast-moving court fights that already includes a trip to the Supreme Court and rescheduled primary elections.

Alabama officials earlier this month asked the Supreme Court to clear the way to use a legislature-approved map known as the 2023 plan, which this panel of judges had found illegally and unconstitutionally discriminated against Black voters.

The Supreme Court set aside that ruling and sent the case back to the three-judge panel, saying the panel should reconsider it in light of a decision in a separate Supreme Court case that invalidated a Louisiana congressional map with a second district designed to allow a Black minority to elect a minority-preferred candidate.

After a hearing Friday, the panel ruled Tuesday that the state’s new congressional map, which mirrored one passed by the legislature in 2023, was still discriminatory. The panel found the map violated both the Voting Rights Act and 14th Amendment to the Constitution after a trial last year.

“Ultimately, 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,” the ruling said.

Tuesday’s order blocked the state from using the 2023 plan for this fall’s elections. The order will likely be appealed to the Supreme Court as an emergency application by the state.

The order also separately set a trial for next year on the full legality of the map.

The new map would have one Black majority district and six white majority districts. The judges ruled that plan unconstitutional and directed the state to use a previous court-approved map which has two Black opportunity districts.

Under the prior court-approved map, which was used in the 2024 elections, the state has two Democrats and five Republicans in the House.

In Tuesday’s order the three judges noted that blocking the implementation of the new plan would not substantially disrupt preparations for elections this year. The order noted that until earlier this month, all the candidates were campaigning under the prior map and many voters are still in the state’s election systems under the prior map.

The Supreme Court ruling earlier this month allowed the state to proceed with a new congressional map. The state held a primary for three unchanged congressional districts on May 19 and Gov. Kay Ivey announced an August primary for the four changed districts in the new map.

The three-judge panel decision also noted that the Supreme Court’s opinion in the Louisiana case did not substantially change the legal issues surrounding the Alabama map. The state still drew the map with the intent to dilute the power of Black voters “at least in part because they were Black.”

“We again cannot understand the 2023 Plan as anything other than intentionally discriminatory,” the decision said.

The three-judge panel held that even under the tighter standard the Supreme Court laid out in the Louisiana case for Voting Rights Act claims, the state still violated the law.

Additionally, the three-judge panel held the state’s map still violated the Constitution, especially because of pretextual arguments about keeping Gulf Coast communities together.

“We reach this conclusion with great reluctance and dismay and even greater restraint — only after another exhaustive analysis of an extensive record, as the Supreme Court’s remand order and its precedent instructs us,” the order said. “We reject in the strongest possible terms the State’s attempt to finish its intentional decision to dilute minority votes with a veneer of legislative regularity.”

The state’s congressional map has been in litigation for almost five years, after initially drawing a map with a single Black majority district.

Several groups of voters and civil rights groups sued, arguing the Voting Rights Act required an additional congressional district where Black voters could elect a candidate of their choice.

Initially the three-judge panel agreed, as did the Supreme Court in a 2023 decision. The judges then imposed the plan that was used in 2024.

Separately the state abandoned its initial 2021 plan and adopted the new plan in 2023. That plan was then reinstated after the Supreme Court’s Louisiana decision and was the subject of Tuesday’s ruling.

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