Federal court blocks new Texas congressional map for 2026
The decision is a major blow for Republicans, in Texas and nationally, who pushed through the mid-decade redistricting at the behest of President Donald Trump. Attorney General Ken Paxton said he would appeal.
Texas cannot use its new congressional map for the 2026 election and will instead need to stick with the lines passed in 2021, a three-judge panel ruled Tuesday.
“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” U.S. Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee, wrote in the ruling. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.”
The ruling itself can be found here:
The ruling starts out with a quote from Chief Justice John Roberts which is the basis for declaring Texas' maps likely violate the Supreme Court rulings on racial gerrymanders.
The funny part of the ruling is it's the demand by Trump's DoJ for Texas to redraw districts that highlights why the redistricting is an illegal racial gerrymander.
