Shomari Figures stands in a congressional district that might not exist by November if the Alabama Republican machine succeeds in its latest legal assault. On May 27, the state filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate a map that a lower court panel called "tainted by intentional race-based discrimination." The three-judge panel, which included two Trump appointees, rejected the GOP map for the third time, ordering the state to use a court-drawn version that includes two majority-Black districts.

Republican-appointed Justice Samuel Alito previously wrote that race-based redistricting should only be a last resort, a signal that Alabama officials are now using to justify the elimination of Black political agency. Representative Terri Sewell warned that the legal framework supporting representation for six decades is being systematically dismantled. "We're going backwards," activists told The Guardian as the state where Bloody Sunday occurred once again becomes the laboratory for the 'Hollow State's' retreat from civil rights. This is the administrative liquidation of the vote, conducted in the quiet of a courtroom rather than the heat of the street.