Supreme Court lets Texas use gerrymandered U.S. House map : NPR

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for Texas to use a new congressional map that could help Republicans win five more U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterm elections.

Solution released Thursday, boosts the GOP's chances of maintaining its slim House majority amid an unprecedented fight against gerrymandering launched by President Trump, who is pushing Texas and other GOP-led states to redraw their congressional districts in favor of Republicans.

The Supreme Court's unsigned order followed Texas' emergency request for justices to stay a three-judge panel's decision blocking the state's recently redrawn map.

After nine days of hearings in October, that commission concluded that opponents of the new map would likely argue in court that the map violated the Constitution by discriminating against voters based on race.

IN majority opinion — authored by a Trump candidate — the commission cited letter from the Ministry of Justice and several public statements by key Republican state lawmakers who suggested their mapmaker manipulated the racial demographics of congressional districts to eliminate existing districts where black and Latino voters together make up the majority. For next year's midterm elections, the commission ordered Texas to continue using the congressional districts that the GOP-controlled state Legislature drew in 2021.

But in Texas filing with the Supreme Courtthe state said legislators were not motivated by race and instead focused on drawing new districts that were more likely to elect Republicans.

What the Supreme Court said

In its decision Thursday to side with Texas, the Supreme Court said the panel “failed to meet the presumption of legislative integrity by construing ambiguous direct and circumstantial evidence against the Legislature.”

The high court also found that, given the release of the commission's decision midway through the Texas candidate filing period, the lower court “improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing great confusion and upsetting the delicate balance of federal and state elections.”

However, in a dissenting opinion, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan criticized the court's majority for overturning the commission's decision after “reviewing cold paper reports over the holiday weekend.”

The high court's decision “will ensure that many Texas citizens will be placed into congressional districts without good cause because of their race,” wrote Kagan, who was joined by the court's two other liberals, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. “And that result, as the court has said year after year, is a violation of the Constitution.”

In November, after the panel blocked the new map, Justice Samuel Alito allowed Texas to temporarily restore it while the Supreme Court considered the state's emergency request.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, supported the Supreme Court's decision Thursday, saying in a statement that the map drawn by the GOP “reflects the political climate of our state and is a huge victory for Texas and every conservative who is tired of watching the left try to upend the political system with bogus lawsuits.”

Democrats criticized the Supreme Court. In a statement, U.S. Rep. Susan DelBene, chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said “the people of Texas do not need this map, but it was created at the behest of national Republicans who are desperate to maintain their House majority by destroying the minority vote.”

Texas begins redistricting fight

A mid-decade redistricting plan passed by Texas Republicans has sparked a counter-reaction from Democratic leaders in California, where voters in November's special elections approved new congressional map this could help Democrats gain five additional seats in the House of Representatives. A court hearing to challenge the map is scheduled for Dec. 15.

The rest of the redistricting landscape also remains unresolved. The lawsuits challenge new schemers in places like Missouriwhere there is also a disputed reference force. And other states, including Florida, Indiana And Virginiacould also pursue new districts before the midterm elections.

Last week the federal court decided to allow Midterm elections in North Carolina will follow a newly redrawn map that could give Republicans an additional seat.

Another wave of congressional redistricting could appear soon, depending on what—and when—the Supreme Court decides in the voting rights case over Louisiana's congressional map. After the court held a rare rehearing of the case in October, some states Looking forward to a potential earlier than usual decision this could allow Republican-led states to draw more GOP-friendly districts for the 2026 midterm elections.

Edited by Benjamin Swasey