The Supreme Court on Thursday gave the green light to Texas’ efforts to be able to use a new congressional map favorable to Republicans in the 2026 elections, despite a lower court’s ruling that the map unconstitutionally sorts voters based on race.
In a brief, unsigned opinion, a majority of the court granted the state’s request to pause the ruling issued earlier this month by a three-judge district court in El Paso. That ruling had been on hold since Nov. 21, when Justice Samuel Alito – who handles emergency appeals from Texas – temporarily stayed it to give the justices time to consider the state’s request; Wednesday’s decision extends that hold indefinitely.
Part of the brief five paragraph order stated, “Texas is likely to succeed on the merits of its claim that the District Court committed at least two serious errors.” Moreover, it added, the lower court “improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing much confusion and upsetting the delicate federal-state balance in elections.”
Justice Elena Kagan dissented from the ruling, in an opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Thursday’s order, she said, “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. Today’s order,” she continued, “disrespects the work of a District Court that did everything one could ask to carry out its charge—that put aside every consideration except getting the issue before it right.”