The Supreme Court struck down a lower court’s ruling on Texas’s redrawn Congressional map, allowing the state to use it in the 2026 midterms.
“For the reasons set forth in Abbott v. League of United Latin American Citizens, 607 U. S. ___ (2025), we reverse the District Court’s judgment,” SCOTUS wrote in the order list.
The decision comes after SCOTUS temporarily blocked the ruling in December.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
The redrawn map would give Republicans five additional seats.
Texas lawmakers passed the map along party lines, 88-52.
In November, a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas – El Paso Division ruled 2-1 against the map, finding that the plaintiffs have strong direct evidence supporting their claim that Texas engaged in racial gerrymandering.
SCOTUS disagreed. In December, 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.
SCOTUS has already temporarily allowed California to use its redrawn Congressional map, which would flip five GOP seats.
I imagine we will witness a similar fight regarding the redrawn Congressional map Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled this morning.
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