In a significant development from Washington, the U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily halted a lower court’s decision that deemed Texas’ 2026 congressional redistricting plan, advocated by President Donald Trump, likely discriminatory based on race.
Justice Samuel Alito signed the order, putting a pause on the lower court’s ruling for at least several days. This delay allows the Supreme Court to decide whether the new map, which benefits Republicans, can be utilized in the upcoming midterm elections.
The conservative majority in the Supreme Court has a history of blocking similar lower court decisions, particularly when they occur close to election dates.
The intervention from the high court followed an urgent request from Texas, aiming to prevent confusion as the congressional primary elections in March approach. This pattern of blocking lower court rulings on redistricting has been observed recently in states like Alabama and Louisiana, where decisions were made just months before elections.
Justice Alito, who manages emergency appeals from Texas, signed the order.
This redistricting effort in Texas, initiated over the summer, was part of President Trump’s strategy to maintain a narrow Republican majority in the House for the upcoming elections. The map aimed to secure five additional House seats for Republicans. However, a panel of federal judges in El Paso recently ruled, in a 2-1 decision, that civil rights groups, representing Black and Hispanic voters challenging the map, are likely to succeed in their case.
If that ruling eventually holds, Texas could be forced to hold elections next year using the map drawn by the GOP-controlled Legislature in 2021 based on the 2020 census.
Texas was the first state to meet Trump’s demands in what has become an expanding national battle over redistricting. Republicans drew the state’s new map to give the GOP five additional seats, and Missouri and North Carolina followed with new maps adding an additional Republican seat each. To counter those moves, California voters approved a ballot initiative to give Democrats an additional five seats there.
The redrawn maps are facing court challenges in California, Missouri and North Carolina.
The Supreme Court is separately considering a case from Louisiana which could further limit race-based districts under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. It’s not entirely clear how the current round of redistricting would be affected by the outcome in the Louisiana case.
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