Texas’ newly redrawn congressional map is officially cleared for use, after the U.S. Supreme Court formally overturned a lower court’s ruling Monday.
In November, the high court allowed the map to be used temporarily. Monday’s ruling maintains that status quo permanently, ensuring the new lines will be used for the 2026 midterms and going forward. The ruling ends the lengthy legal battle over Texas’ efforts to add as many as five more Republican seats to the U.S. House.
Texas took up this unusual mid-decade redistricting effort over the summer, after President Donald Trump pushed the state to help shore up the GOP’s narrow majority in what is expected to be a difficult midterm election for the party. The effort drew significant pushback, including from state House Democrats, who left Texas to temporarily deny the chamber the headcount needed to pass the map.
After the Democrats returned, the map passed, and legal challenges immediately followed. Several civil rights groups who were in active litigation over Texas’ 2021 maps sued again, saying the 2025 map was racially discriminatory.
In November, Judge Jeff Brown agreed, writing in his 160-page opinion joined by Judge David Guaderrama that there was “substantial evidence” that this new map was racially gerrymandered. Brown, a Trump appointee, received a dressing down from the panel’s lone dissenter, 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jerry Smith, who said the opinion was the “most blatant exercise of judicial activism that I have ever witnessed.”
Lawyers for the state asked the Supreme Court to block Brown’s ruling and allow the map to be used for the fast-approaching 2026 primaries. In early December, the court agreed, saying Texas was likely to succeed on the merits of the case.
Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, saying the temporary ruling “disrespects the work of a District Court that did everything one could ask to carry out its charge — that put aside every consideration except getting the issue before it right.”
Monday’s ruling fell along similar ideological lines. Kagan, Sotomayor and Jackson again dissented; no additional comments from the justices were included in the summary ruling.
The 2026 election season is well underway with the map drawn last year, but this ruling guarantees that map can be used indefinitely, at least through the next redistricting cycle after the 2030 Census.
But whether it will generate the results Republicans are looking for remains to be seen. Some of the new GOP stronghold districts were drawn based on Latino voters’ sharp swing to the right in 2024, but polling suggests that fragile alliance may be fraying over immigration policy and the economy. And both California and Virginia have approved maps aimed at generating more Democratic seats, potentially neutralizing any gains Texas has enacted.
State Rep. Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat who chairs the Texas House Democratic Caucus, slammed the justices for protecting “Greg Abbott’s racist map” but added that his caucus had blunted its effect by helping spur blue states into action.
“As much as this loss stings, Greg Abbott should not confuse this ruling for a victory,” Wu said in a statement. “When we broke quorum last year, Texas House Democrats forced his power grab into the open. Now, California and Virginia have answered and leveled the playing field, and Democrats across the country are still fighting back.”
Some GOP lawmakers celebrated the ruling, including state Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Galveston Republican who is running for attorney general.
“The Big Beautiful Map stands!” Middleton posted on social media. “I’m proud to have fought to make this law and now let’s go elect those 5 additional Republican Congressional seats we drew!”
