A federal court has blocked Texas from using its new congressional map for the 2026 midterm elections.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, writing for the majority, ordered Texas to use the maps previously used by the Texaslegislature in 2021 for the 2026 elections in a 2-1 decision. Brown was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019
“The map ultimately passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor — the 2025 Map — achieved all but one of the racial objectives that DOJ demanded,” Brown wrote in the decision. “The Legislature dismantled and left unrecognizable not only all of the districts DOJ identified in the letter, but also several other ‘coalition districts’ around the State.”
Lawmakers approved the map in August and could have given Republicans five additional seats in Congress after the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division sent a letter to Texas urging the state to redraw maps.
The letter threatened legal action if Texas did not change the “coalition districts” that were drawn to abide by the Voting Rights Act.
“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics. 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 says.
Just a few days after the map was approved, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed a lawsuit accusing the state of “racially motivated gerrymandering to silence Black communities ahead of next year’s midterms.”
The new congressional lines were strongly pushed by Trump, who has called on Republican-led states to shore up GOP control in Washington ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The new Texas map started a rush of redistricting efforts from both parties across the country. A new Democratic map was drawn in California in direct response to Texas aiming to flip five Republican-held seats.The DOJ has sued officials in California over its new map meant to give Democrats an edge in 2026.
If Texas were to appeal the decision, which is expected, it would go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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