Getty ImagesThe U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for Texas to use a new congressional map that could help Republicans bolster their majority in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.
Thursday's unsigned decision comes after Texas filed an emergency request last month to block a lower court ruling blocking the new map, which was passed by the state Legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in August.
In a clear 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court said in its “preliminary assessment of this case” that Texas met the conditions for emergency relief and that the lower court “made at least two serious errors.”
Three liberal justices dissented.
“The district court improperly became involved in an active primary campaign, causing great confusion and upsetting the delicate balance of federal and state elections,” the order states.
In November, a Texas lower court said evidence indicated the new congressional districts were “racially gerrymandered” and ordered the state to use the congressional line they had in place before redistricting earlier this year.
In the United States, gerrymandering—the redrawing of electoral boundaries to favor a political party—is illegal only if it is based on race.
Mid-decade redistricting problems arose after Texas Democratic lawmakers leave the state summer to stop voting on the new map, which would help spark a race in other states to change their maps.
California has proposed new maps to offset Texas gains that voters approved during November's special election. The U.S. Department of Justice is suing over the state's redistricting plan.
In November, Indiana became the latest battleground in a nationwide political battle, with other states including Utah and North Carolina also entering the fray.
The Supreme Court's decision means a victory for President Donald Trump. The new map could add up to five seats to Republicans in the midterm elections as the party fights to maintain its narrow majority and the president has filed a brief asking the high court to rule in Texas' favor.
But in a lengthy dissent from Thursday's ruling, liberal Justice Elena Kagan said it “deserves the attention of the millions of Texans who the district court found were being assigned to new districts based on their race.”
The court's three conservative justices, in brief concurring opinions, rejected the idea that Republicans in Texas redrew the electoral map along racial lines.
It is “undeniable” that the impetus for passing the Texas map, and then the new redrawing of the California map, was “partisan advantage, pure and simple,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote, joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas.
Texas Gov. Abbott celebrated a legal victory by praising the high court for restoring the state's redistricting maps, declaring, “We won! Texas is officially—and legally—redder.”
“The new congressional districts will better align our representation in Washington with our state's values. This is a victory for Texas voters, common sense and the U.S. Constitution,” he said.
Separately, state Democratic leader Gene Woo said the court had failed Texas voters and American democracy.
“This is what the end of the Voting Rights Act looks like: courts that won't protect minorities even when the evidence stares them in the face.”
Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, who leads House Democrats in Washington, D.C., criticized the Texas map as “a partisan and racially discriminatory power grab designed to subvert the will of the voters.”
