The Supreme Court cleared the way for Texas to use a new congressional map that could help Republicans win up to five additional U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterm elections. The unsigned order grants Texas’ emergency request to pause a three-judge panel’s ruling that had blocked the map and ordered the state to continue using its 2021 congressional districts.
The three-judge panel, after a nine-day hearing, found challengers were likely to prove at trial that the new map violated the Constitution by discriminating against voters based on race. The panel pointed to a Department of Justice letter and public statements by key Republican state lawmakers, concluding the map-drawer manipulated district demographics to eliminate districts where Black and Latino voters together formed the majority.
Texas told the Supreme Court the legislature’s intent was political — to draw districts more likely to elect Republicans — not racial. The high court agreed with Texas, saying the lower panel “failed to honor the presumption of legislative good faith by construing ambiguous direct and circumstantial evidence against the legislature.” The court also said the panel improperly interfered with an active primary by issuing its ruling in the middle of candidate filing, upsetting the federal-state balance in elections.
Justice Elena Kagan dissented, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, criticizing the majority for reversing the panel after “a perusal, over a holiday weekend, of a cold paper record.” Kagan warned the decision “ensures that many Texas citizens, for no good reason, will be placed in electoral districts because of their race,” calling that result a constitutional violation.
Earlier, Justice Samuel Alito had temporarily allowed Texas to reinstate the new map while the Supreme Court considered the emergency application. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton praised Thursday’s ruling, calling the GOP map reflective of the state’s political climate and a win against “bogus lawsuits.” Democrats condemned the decision; Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Suzan DelBene said the map was imposed by national Republicans seeking to protect their House majority by reducing minority voting opportunity.
Texas’ mid-decade redistricting prompted a counterreaction in California, where voters in a November special election approved a new congressional map that could help Democrats gain five seats; a legal challenge to that map has a court hearing scheduled for Dec. 15. Other states are embroiled in or considering similar fights: lawsuits and referenda are pending in Missouri, and Florida, Indiana and Virginia are among states that may pursue new districts before the midterms.
Last week a federal court allowed North Carolina’s midterm elections to proceed under a recently redrawn map that could give Republicans an extra seat. Observers are also watching a Supreme Court voting-rights case out of Louisiana; depending on its timing and outcome, the decision could affect whether Republican-led states can implement new, more favorable maps in time for the 2026 elections.
Edited by Benjamin Swasey