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The United States Supreme Court has ruled that Texas may use its newly drawn congressional map in the 2026 midterms, potentially helping House Republicans pick up at least five seats.
The ruling followed a lower court’s finding that the state’s map was unconstitutionally gerrymandered on racial grounds.
The high court’s unsigned opinion showed that the majority of justices granted the state’s request to pause the earlier ruling, which had been on hold since Nov. 21, when Judge Samuel Alito temporarily stayed it to give justices time to consider the case.
However, the court’s Thursday ruling shows that this stay will hold indefinitely, faulting the lower court for misreading evidence and requiring legal inferences ahead of next year’s election deadlines, Fox News reported.
The brief order keeps Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott’s redrawn districts in place, while the court further said that the lower court made two errors when failing to apply the presumption of legislative good faith when considering disputed evidence, while also declining to draw a clear inference against opponents who provided no alternative map to the state’s partisan goals.
Justice Elena Kagan dissented from the ruling, with the opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Kagan claimed that the map “announces that Texas may run next year’s elections with a map the District Court found to have violated all our oft-repeated strictures about the use of race in districting,” and that it “disrespects the work of a District Cour that did everything one could ask to carry out its charge—that put aside every consideration except getting the issue before it right.”
Abbot, however, expressed his approval with the ruling, stating that Texas was “officially — and legally —more red.”
“The U.S. Supreme Court restored the redistricting maps passed by Texas that were based on constitutional principles and Supreme Court precedent. The new congressional districts better align our representation in Washington, D.C., with the values of our state. This is a victory for Texas voters, for common sense, and for the U.S. Constitution,” he said.
Likewise, the high court’s decision is a major win for President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, especially as the GOP attempts to maintain House control amid their narrow majority.
Republicans currently hold a majority of 219 to 214 seats, with two vacancies.