AUSTIN — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday night blocked a lower court ruling that found Texas new congressional map was likely a racial gerrymander, allowing the map to stay in effect — for now.
The brief order by Justice Samuel Alito came after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had asked the court to allow the new map to remain in place while the high court considers the state’s appeal.
Alito asked the justices to issue a ruling before 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 24.
Paxton had asked for the court to make it’s decision by Dec. 1. The state’s filing deadline for the 2026 midterm elections is Dec. 8.
Political Points
While it is a brief victory for Texas, Friday’s order by Alito does not necessarily foreshadow how the nine justices will vote when considering if they agree with the lower court’s ruling that blocked the new map.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown, a Trump appointee, granted a preliminary injunction when he ruled the map the Republican-controlled Legislature approved over the summer was racially gerrymandered.
“To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map,” Brown wrote in his opinion. “ But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.”
U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jerry Smith filed a scathing dissent the next day in which he excoriated the majority opinion as “the most blatant exercise of judicial activism that I have ever witnessed.”
Related
The Supreme Court’s ultimate ruling will likely have a major impact on next year’s midterm elections.
President Donald Trump asked state lawmakers to draw a new congressional map that could shift five House districts to Republicans, giving the GOP a better chance of retaining control of Congress after the midterms.
The decision by Texas to redistrict mid-decade in response to Trump set off a redistricting battle across the states as Republican- and Democrat-controlled states have looked to cancel each other out and give their party a better chance at having control of Congress.