As expected, Supreme Court officially greenlights Texas’ gerrymandered congressional map for midterms
The U.S. Supreme Court sewed up the loose ends of its earlier 6-3 decision to allow Texas’s mid-decade congressional redistricting Monday, issuing a summary reversal of a trial court’s ruling blocking the map.
After Texas heeded President Donald Trump’s call for Republican-led states to maximize their partisan advantages ahead of the 2026 midterms, the state was sued by pro-voting groups who argued the new maps intentionally diluted minority voting power in violation of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th and 15th Amendments. A panel of federal judges blocked the redraw in November with a scathing opinion written by Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee.
But less than a month later, the Supreme Court stayed that ruling, setting aside the trial court’s findings that racial concerns motivated the new map. Instead, the justices held that Texas engaged in partisan gerrymandering, which SCOTUS has said can’t be blocked by federal courts.
That decision allowed Texas to move forward with the map, which may help Republicans pick up five more seats in Congress. Monday’s order, issued without any additional reasoning, simply finalized December’s ruling.
The court’s three liberals — Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson — dissented.
While Monday’s order puts a pin in this matter ahead of November’s elections, the lawsuit will continue, as Michael Li of the Brennan Center for Justice noted. The Supreme Court blocked the lower court’s injunction, which was granted on racial gerrymandering claims, but the plaintiffs made other challenges without seeking injunctive relief.
Those claims remain to be fully litigated and could impact the Texas’ congressional map in the future.
Since Texas kicked it off last summer, other states have joined Trump’s redistricting war, with Democratic-led California and Virginia seeking to counter the GOP’s gains in Texas, North Carolina, and Missouri. The final battleground tally remains to be seen, as the Virginia Supreme Court hears a challenge Monday to Democrats’ redistricting campaign there, and the Florida legislature begins a special session to redraw its map, with the goal of flipping four seats to Republicans.
