The Supreme Court allowed Texas to use a newly drawn congressional map that could help Republicans pick up as many as five seats in the 2026 House elections. In an unsigned order the court granted Texas an emergency request to pause a three-judge panel’s decision that had blocked the map and required the state to continue using its 2021 districts.
The lower panel, after a nine-day hearing, concluded challengers were likely to show at trial that the map discriminated on the basis of race. The judges cited a Department of Justice letter and public comments by prominent Republican lawmakers, and found that the map-drawer adjusted district lines to eliminate districts where Black and Latino voters together formed the majority.
Texas told the high court the legislature’s aim was political — to create districts more likely to elect Republicans — not racial. The Supreme Court said the lower court had not given the legislature the presumption of good faith and had treated ambiguous evidence against lawmakers. It also said the panel improperly disrupted an active candidate filing period and upset the federal-state balance in overseeing elections.
Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented, faulting the majority for reversing the trial court after what she described as a brief review of the paper record. Kagan warned the ruling risks placing many Texans into districts because of their race, which she called a constitutional violation.
Earlier the court had allowed the map back in place temporarily while it considered Texas’s request, after Justice Samuel Alito issued an interim order. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hailed the decision, calling the GOP map a fair reflection of the state’s politics and a victory over what he called ‘bogus lawsuits.’ Democrats denounced the move; Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Suzan DelBene said national Republicans imposed the map to protect their House majority by reducing minority voting opportunity.
Texas’s mid-decade redistricting has spurred parallel fights elsewhere. California voters approved a new congressional map in a special election that could net Democrats five seats; a legal challenge to that plan is scheduled for a Dec. 15 hearing. Lawsuits and proposals are active in Missouri, and Florida, Indiana and Virginia are among states considering new maps before the midterms. Last week a federal court let North Carolina proceed under a recently redrawn map that could add a Republican seat. Observers are also watching a separate Supreme Court voting-rights case from Louisiana, whose timing and outcome could affect whether Republican-led states can implement new, more favorable maps in time for 2026.