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

"WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that found Texas' 2026 congressional redistricting plan pushed by President Trump likely discriminates on the basis of race. 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."

"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 Supreme Court issued a temporary stay of a lower-court ruling that found Texas' 2026 congressional redistricting plan likely discriminates based on race. Justice Samuel Alito signed the emergency order, delaying enforcement for several days while the court weighs whether the new Republican-favored map can be used in next year's elections. The conservative majority has previously blocked similar pre-election lower-court interventions. Texas' GOP-drawn map was designed to add five Republican House seats and follows a 2-1 El Paso panel ruling that civil-rights challengers representing Black and Hispanic voters are likely to prevail. Other states followed with similar GOP maps.

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