Congresswoman Terri Sewell of Birmingham applauded Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that Alabama’s congressional district map likely violates the Voting Rights Act and said she expects prompt action to redraw it.

“My expectation is that given that there may be irreparable harm by not immediately redrawing the lines that there may be a chance that this is through a special election before the 2024 election,” Sewell said.

“But I fully expect the 2024 elections will be with the new lines.”

Sewell is Alabama’s only Black representative in Congress and represents District 7, the only one of the seven districts with a majority Black population.

In the ruling released Thursday, the court ruled 5-4 to affirm lower court rulings that the plan violates the Voting Rights Act because Black voters do not have an equal chance to elect representatives of their choosing.

The state’s population is about 27% Black.

Sewell said she expects her district to change on a new map but said she intended to continue to represent District 7.

She said it’s her understanding that the decision on what happens next is in the hands of the three-judge panel that ruled last year in favor of the organizations and Black voters who sued to challenge the map.

“The Supreme Court’s decision today, they remanded the case back to the same three-judge panel to make them draw the lines or at least review the lines if they’re drawn by the state Legislature,” Sewell said. “I feel with a unanimous lower court’s decision that we are in good hands to get a good outcome.”

The Legislature drew the map in 2021 after the 2020 census, as is required after every census. Gov. Kay Ivey and Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter are still reviewing the ruling, according to their staffs.

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, a Republican and the state’s top election official, issued a statement, saying, “I am disappointed in today’s Supreme Court opinion but it remains the commitment of the Secretary of State’s Office to comply with all applicable election laws.”

Lawyers representing the secretary of state and other state officials have defended the state’s congressional map.