Supreme Court blocks order that found Texas congressional map is likely racially biased

"Texas redrew its congressional map in the summer as part of Trump's efforts to preserve a slim Republican majority in the House in next year's elections, touching off a nationwide redistricting battle. The new redistricting map was engineered to give Republicans five additional House seats, but a panel of federal judges in El Paso ruled 2-1 Tuesday that the civil rights groups that challenged the map on behalf of Black and Hispanic voters were likely to win their case."

"The order signed by Justice Samuel Alito will remain in place at least for the next few days while the court considers whether to allow the new map favorable to Republicans to be used in the midterm elections. The court's conservative majority has blocked similar lower court rulings because they have come too close to elections. The order came about an hour after the state called on the high court to intervene to avoid confusion as congressional primary elections approach in March."

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a temporary block of a lower-court ruling that found Texas' 2026 congressional redistricting plan likely discriminates on the basis of race. Justice Samuel Alito signed the order, which will remain in place for several days while the court considers whether to allow the Republican-favorable map for midterm elections. The conservative majority has previously paused similar rulings when they occurred close to elections. Texas redrew the map to try to preserve a slim GOP House majority, adding five seats, while a federal panel in El Paso found civil rights challengers likely to prevail; if upheld, Texas could be required to use the 2021 map based on the 2020 census.

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