by Jake Johnson | Jun 3, 2026 | Article, elections, Politics and Movements: US, Racial Justice, Reprint, Voting Rights
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on June 03, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
The US Supreme Court late Tuesday gave Alabama a green light to use an aggressively gerrymandered congressional map that a lower court said was “tainted by intentional race-based discrimination.”
The unsigned decision, from which the high court’s three liberal justices dissented, enables Alabama’s Republican-dominated government to replace its current congressional map, which has two majority-Black districts, with a map that the US Supreme Court struck down in 2023. That map has just one majority-Black district.
In her dissenting opinion, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that “just as Alabama doubled down on racial discrimination, the court today doubles down on chaos.”
“In addition to being wrong on the merits, the court’s decision inflicts two grave harms on the public,” wrote Sotomayor. “It debases the democratic process by upending Alabama’s entire election in the name of permitting Alabama to discriminate against Black Alabamians. It also corrodes the rule of law by rewarding Alabama’s gamesmanship and outright defiance of court orders.”
The liberal justice noted that in order to switch to the map previously struck down by the high court, Alabama election officials “will have to reassign hundreds of thousands of voters across the state to new congressional districts.”
“Three of Alabama’s counties will be particularly hard hit because they are split across two congressional districts,” Sotomayor noted. “These counties have about 600,000 registered voters between them (roughly 15% of the state’s total number of registered voters).”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, postponed US House primary elections in the wake of the Supreme Court’s April decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which severely narrowed the 1965 Voting Rights Act’s protections against racial discrimination and paved
by Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli | May 31, 2026 | Boat Strikes, Colombia, Donald Trump, elections, Gustavo Castro, Latin America, Narco-trafficking, News, Trump Administration
On Sunday, Colombians will go to the polls for the first round of their presidential elections, a race that could radically reshape Colombia’s relations with the United States at a moment of political turmoil and polarization in Latin America. The key contenders include the ruling party’s candidate, Iván Cepeda; conservative outsider Abelardo De la Espriella; and Paloma Valencia of former…
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by Erin Reed | May 27, 2026 | bathroom ban, elections, LGBTQ Rights, Maine, News, Trans Rights
On Tuesday, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows ruled that a proposed ballot initiative banning trans students from school sports and bathrooms will not appear before voters this November. The billionaire-funded campaign initially submitted 79,692 signatures — well over the 67,682 required to qualify — and the Secretary of State’s office certified the question for the ballot in March.
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by Marianne Dhenin | May 24, 2026 | 2026 election, 2026 midterms, Ableism, Accessibility, Americans with Disabilities Act, Department of Justice, Disabilities, Disability, Disability Justice, disability rights, doj, elections, Midterm election, midterm elections, midterms, News
A last-minute change from the Department of Justice (DOJ) has outraged disabled people and disability rights groups and could affect access to the ballot box come the midterm elections this November. The agency issued an interim final rule on April 20, pushing back a planned April 24, 2026, deadline for large municipalities to ensure their apps and online offerings are accessible in accordance…
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by Theia Chatelle | May 23, 2026 | demolition, Displacement, East Jerusalem, elections, Home demolitions, Israel, Jerusalem, News, Palestinians, settlers
East Jerusalem is days away from its largest forced displacement since 1967. Eight Palestinian homes are set to be demolished by the end of May — the highest number in a single month, according to the Israeli nonprofit Ir Amim since it began tracking such demolitions. “Soon, these will all be gone,” said Fakhri Abu Diab, a longtime East Jerusalem activist whose own home was demolished…
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