The US Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for Texas to use its new congressional map, boosting the Republican Party’s chances of winning five additional US House seats in the 2026 midterm election. The unsigned order granted Texas’s emergency request to pause a three-judge panel’s ruling that had blocked the map amid allegations of racial discrimination, NPR news reported.In October, the three-judge panel held a nine-day hearing and concluded that challengers were likely to prove at trial that the map violated the Constitution by discriminating against voters based on race. In its majority opinion, authored by a Trump nominee, the panel cited a letter from the Department of Justice and public statements by key Republican state lawmakers indicating their mapdrawer manipulated racial demographics to eliminate districts where Black and Latino voters formed the majority. The panel ordered Texas to continue using the congressional districts drawn in 2021 for the next year’s mid-term elections.Texas appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that lawmakers were motivated by a desire to draw districts more favourable to Republicans rather than by race. In November, Justice Samuel Alito allowed Texas to temporarily reinstate the new map while the high court considered the emergency application. The mid-decade redistricting plan in Texas prompted a counter-response in California, where voters in a special election in November approved a new congressional map that could help Democrats gain five additional House seats. A court hearing on the legal challenge to that map is set for Dec. 15.The broader redistricting landscape remains unsettled. Lawsuits are challenging new gerrymanders in Missouri amid a contested referendum effort, and states including Florida, Indiana and Virginia may pursue new districts before the mid-term elections. Last week, a federal court ruled that North Carolina’s mid-term election could proceed under its recently redrawn map, which may give Republicans an extra seat.Another wave of congressional redistricting may follow pending a Supreme Court ruling in a voting rights case concerning Louisiana’s map. After the court held a rare rehearing in October, some states are watching for an earlier-than-usual decision that could allow Republican-led states to adopt more GOP-friendly districts in time for the 2026 mid-term polls.
