Political ‘ping-pong’ match sees Alabama Democrats score latest win with appeals court ruling on Congressional redistricting lines

The 2026 Alabama Legislative Session was a busy one for Rep. Jamie Kiel (R-Russellville), and it’s already included a special session just days after the regular session came to an end.

Legislators returned to Montgomery in May after Gov. Kay Ivey convened a special session to address Alabama’s Congressional redistricting process after a United States Supreme Court ruling in early May that ruled race can not be used as a criteria in drawing district maps.

Although the Court’s ruling came in a Louisiana case, it was expected to impact other states’ redistricting efforts as well. The State of Alabama’s Congressional line redistricting is already pending before a federal appeals court, which on May 26th issued an order enjoining the state from reinstating the legislative 2023 boundary lines.

In what resembles a political game of ping-pong, though,  based on the Louisiana case, the United States Supreme Court seems likely to find Alabama’s redistricting that led to a second ‘minority majority’ Congressional district in the state to also be unconstitutional. In that case, the 2023 lines would be reinstated.

In the special session, the Alabama Legislature approved a bill that would call for a special primary, based on the legislature’s redistricted boundary lines that were set aside in 2023.

Kiel, who supported the original redistricting approved by a majority of legislators, also had several bills he sponsored become law in the 2026 session, including one that eliminated phone numbers from the voter roll and lowered the cost of obtaining a copy of the state’s voter list.

Two bills sponsored by Kiel were left hanging in the Alabama Senate on the last day and did not get approved.

These included ‘TJ’s law,’ which would allow for parental notification of traffic offenses by minors.

“Basically, if your kids gets a ticket, you’ll get a notice advising you of the ticket,” Kiel said.

There was also some discussion to allow parents to opt in to receiving parental notification of tickets received by their children, as opposed to legislation that would do it automatically.

Kiel is hopeful the substance of what his bill would do will be implemented by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency at a small cost to taxpayers.