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On Thursday, the Supreme Court allowed Texas to move forward with its new congressional map. This decision came after a lower court ruled that the new map unconstitutionally sorts voters by race.
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From SCOTUSblog:
The Supreme Court on Thursday gave the green light to Texas’ efforts to be able to use a new congressional map favorable to Republicans in the 2026 elections despite a lower court’s ruling that the map unconstitutionally sorts voters based on race. In a brief, unsigned opinion, a majority of the court granted the state’s request to pause the ruling issued earlier this month by a three-judge district court in El Paso. That ruling had been on hold since Nov. 21, when Justice Samuel Alito – who handles emergency appeals from Texas – temporarily stayed it to give the justices time to consider the state’s request; Wednesday’s decision extends that hold indefinitely.
The court’s five-paragraph order indicated that “Texas is likely to succeed on the merits of its claim that the District Court committed at least two serious errors.” Moreover, it added, the lower court “improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing much confusion and upsetting the delicate federal-state balance in elections.”
Justice Elena Kagan dissented from the ruling, in an opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Thursday’s order, she said, “announces that Texas may run next year’s elections with a map the District Court found to have violated all our oft-repeated strictures about the use of race in districting. Today’s order,” she continued, “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.”
Seeking to protect the Republican party in next year’s midterms, President Trump called on Texas over the summer to redraw its congressional map. Then, in July, the Department of Justice sent the state a letter alleging that some districts were unconstitutional “coalition districts,” defined by SCOTUSblog as “majority-minority districts that lack a single racial majority.” The DOJ threatened to take action is Texas didn’t rectify the issue, so Governor Greg Abbott ordered state legislators to draw a new congressional map.
A group of plaintiffs, led by the League of United Latin American Citizens, were quick to challenge the map, accusing Texas of racial gerrymandering. The state responded by arguing that it adopted a new map for purely political and partisan, not racial, reasons.
With Texas’ new map, Republicans hope to win 30 of the state’s 38 seats. If this map is in use next November, it could keep the GOP from losing control of the House in the midterms.
As election season heats up and more states try redistricting, we will likely see more cases like these. Let’s continue to pray for fair and secure elections, and let’s pray for wisdom for the Supreme Court!
What do you think of the Supreme Court’s decision? Share your thoughts and prayers below.
(Excerpt from SCOTUSblog. Photo Credit: CHIP SOMODEVILLA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
