The Supreme Court struck down a lower court ruling that had blocked Texas’s newly-drawn congressional map, ensuring it will be used for the 2026 midterm elections.

The ruling ends the lengthy battle over the new congressional districts, which could potentially yield five additional Republican-held U.S. House seats.

Fox News explained further:

The court hung its order on reasoning from a previous ruling in Abbott v. League of United Latin American Citizens but did not elaborate. The three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented.

The decision comes after the Supreme Court temporarily greenlit the state’s map in December and California’s map in February. Both states spearheaded the mid-cycle redistricting fights that have now been cropping up across the country. The high court’s approval of both states’ maps, giving Republicans and Democrats five-seat advantages, respectively, served to cancel each other’s efforts out ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, had asked the Supreme Court last year to pause a three-judge panel’s ruling in the Western District of Texas that found 2-1 that race was too much of a factor in its redraw and that the state had improperly attempted to pack Latino and Black voters into new districts.

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The Department of Justice also chimed in, telling the high court to intervene and reverse the lower court decision, saying Texas’ choice to change its map was driven by purely “partisan objectives,” not racial objectives, which could violate the Voting Rights Act.

The voting and immigrant rights groups who challenged Texas and Abbott claimed that the map was an illegal racial gerrymander.

The high court granted a 6-3 temporary stay in December, finding in an unsigned order that the groups had committed “at least two serious errors,” including that they did not extend the Texas legislature the “presumption of legislative good faith.” Monday’s decision by the Supreme Court to summarily reverse the lower court decision keeps the new Texas map alive indefinitely.

“Radical left-wing groups attempted to sabotage Texas’s lawful redistricting efforts, but the Supreme Court’s ruling is a clear rejection of these meritless attacks and a victory for the rule of law,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said.

“Texas’s congressional map is lawful, constitutional, and reflects the will of our citizens, and I will continue to aggressively defend its use ahead of the 2026 midterm elections,” he added.

More from The Texas Tribune:

The 2026 election season is well underway with the map drawn last year. But whether it will generate the results Republicans are looking for remains to be seen. Some of the new GOP stronghold districts were drawn based on Latino voters’ sharp swing to the right in 2024, but polling suggests that fragile alliance may be fraying over immigration policy and the economy. And both California and Virginia have approved maps aimed at generating more Democratic seats, potentially neutralizing any gains Texas has enacted.

State Rep. Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat who chairs the Texas House Democratic Caucus, slammed the justices for protecting “Greg Abbott’s racist map” but added that his caucus had blunted its effect by helping spur blue states into action.

“As much as this loss stings, Greg Abbott should not confuse this ruling for a victory,” Wu said in a statement. “When we broke quorum last year, Texas House Democrats forced his power grab into the open. Now, California and Virginia have answered and leveled the playing field, and Democrats across the country are still fighting back.”

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Some GOP lawmakers celebrated the ruling, including state Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Galveston Republican who is running for attorney general.

“The Big Beautiful Map stands!” Middleton posted on social media. “I’m proud to have fought to make this law and now let’s go elect those 5 additional Republican Congressional seats we drew!”

 

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