U.S. Supreme Court revives pro-Republican Texas voting map

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday reinstated a redrawn congressional map for Texas — a map long blocked as likely racially discriminatory — giving the state’s Republicans a major boost ahead of the 2026 mid-term elections.

The map, passed by Texas’s Republican-led legislature and signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott in August 2025, was designed to favor the Republican Party by reshaping district boundaries. If fully realized, the new map could flip as many as five current Democratic-held U.S. House seats to Republicans — a strategic gain for the Donald Trump-aligned GOP.

A three-judge federal court had blocked the map in November, ruling that it likely amounted to an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and ordering the state to stick to its 2021 districts.

But Thursday’s 6–3 decision — along ideological lines — overturned that ruling. In a brief unsigned order, the Supreme Court said the lower court had overstepped by intervening in an active primary campaign and disrupting the balance between state and federal election authority. The justices faulted the challengers for failing to present an alternative map that would satisfy the state’s “avowedly partisan goals.”

In dissent, liberal Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, argued that the Court had “disrespected” the findings of the lower court — which had determined that race had been the dominant factor in drawing the map. They warned the decision undermines constitutional protections for minority voters.

Supporters of the map including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton praised the ruling as a victory for conservative voters. Critics — including Texas Democrats — decried it as a blow to fair representation, saying it disenfranchises Black and Latino communities and marks another step away from the protections once guaranteed by the Voting Rights Act.