The Alabama Legislature begins a special session Monday facing a five-day deadline to redraw the state’s seven congressional districts.

On June 8, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Alabama’s current map, with one majority Black district out of seven, most likely violates the Voting Rights Act in a state where Blacks make up one-fourth of the population.

A three-judge federal district court, which originally made that ruling in January 2022, set a July 21 deadline for the Legislature to draw a new map with two districts that are majority Black or close to majority Black. Lawyers representing the state in the lawsuit suggested that timeline.

The new map must be ready in time for next year’s election. Secretary of State Wes Allen, who is the state’s top election official, has told the court that a new map would need to be in place by Oct. 1. The primaries are in March 2024.

The Legislature’s reapportionment committee meets at 10 a.m. Monday. The House and Senate convene at 2 p.m. It will take a minimum of five days to approve a map, the same as any other bill.

The court gave Black voters and organizations who are plaintiffs in the litigation until July 28 to file objections to a new map. Lawyers for the state would have to respond by Aug. 4. If a hearing in the case, if necessary, would begin on Aug. 14.

If lawmakers fail to approve a new map, the three-judge court will do so. The court has hired an expert to do that.

Alabama’s district map has not changed much since 1992, when a federal court order made District 7 the first majority Black district. As a result that year, Alabama elected its first Black member of Congress since 1877. The state has maintained the six-to-one ratio in its congressional delegation since.

The district court, which held a seven-day hearing last year, found the Black population is large enough and geographically compact enough to create a second majority Black district that is reasonably configured.

The litigation is the result of lawsuits filed by three groups challenging the current map. They are known as the Milligan, Caster, and Singleton plaintiffs, identified by the names of the lead plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs have submitted maps to the reapportionment committee that they say would fix the Voting Rights Act violation. Those include a map supported by the Milligan and Caster plaintiffs that would make District 2, which now covers the southeast portion of the state, a second majority Black district.