The Supreme Court paused a lower court ruling blocking Texas from using its new Congressional map in 2026.
So Texas can use it for now.
This is important: SCOTUS DID NOT rule that the map is legal. They just paused an order.
The fight is not over yet.
However, it’s more likely to hold until the 2026 midterms. The new map could help Republicans grow their House majority.
The majority wrote:
Texas is likely to succeed on the merits of its claim that the District Court committed at least two serious errors. First, the District Court failed to honor the presumption of legislative good faith by construing ambiguous direct and circumstantial evidence against the legislature. Contra, Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, 602 U. S. 1, 10 (2024). Second, the District Court failed to draw a dispositive or neardispositive adverse inference against respondents even though they did not produce a viable alternative map that met the State’s avowedly partisan goals. Contra, id., at 34–35.Texas has also made a strong showing of irreparable harm and that the equities and public interest favor it. “This Court has repeatedly emphasized that lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election.” Republican National Committee v. Democratic National Committee, 589 U. S. 423, 424 (2020) (per curiam). The District Court violated that rule here. The District Court improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing much confusion and upsetting the delicate federal-state balance in elections.
Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson gave us a 16-page dissenting opinion.
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