The U.S. Supreme Court as seen on April 9, 2026. The Supreme Court on Tuesday evening allowed Alabama to use a 2023 congressional map that was previously ruled racially discriminatory, blocking a lower court's ruling, in an August special primary. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom) The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday evening allowed Alabama to use a 2023 congressional map, reversing a lower court’s ruling that repeatedly deemed the map racially discriminatory. In an unsigned 6-3 decision on the case known as Allen v. Milligan, the court wrote that the lower court’s map would not be “more convenient” for Alabama than the congressional map the Legislature passed in 2023. “Here, the District Court interposed itself into Alabama’s ongoing efforts to conduct its imminent 2026 congressional elections under maps that its elected representatives selected,” the justices wrote. “While federal courts should not impose changes close to an election, states are free to decide for themselves...
Tamara Taitt, the executive director of the Atlanta Birth Center and a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Georgia’s midwifery restrictions, speaks at a news conference outside the state Capitol in Atlanta on April 2, 2026. Midwives are suing the state over a law that requires them to have collaborative practice agreements with physicians, a regulation that they say limits their scope of care. (Photo by Maya Homan/Georgia Recorder) Black midwives in the South, a region rife with racial disparities in maternal health access and maternal mortality, are leading lawsuits over state regulations that they say limit their ability to provide care. Women behind the litigation say midwives can help improve birthing outcomes in Southern states, where maternal mortality rates are higher than the overall U.S. rate, and treat low-risk pregnancies in rural and underserved areas. They turned to the courts, they said, after legislative attempts to widen their scope of practice stalled. The lawsuits were f...