A panel of three federal judges ruled Tuesday today that Texas can not use a new congressional map drawn by state GOP lawmakers in hopes of securing additional Republican U.S. House seats.
The judges ordered “that the 2026 congressional election in Texas shall proceed under the map that the Texas Legislature enacted in 2021.”
Breaking News: A federal court barred Texas from using a newly redrawn congressional map in the midterm elections, dealing a blow to Republicans and President Trump to flip Democratic seats in the state.
— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) November 18, 2025 at 11:21 AM
From the New York Times:
The panel of three federal judges in El Paso, in a 2-to-1 decision, sided with civil rights groups that had sued to invalidate the map, which was part of Texas’s aggressive mid-decade push to draw new congressional boundaries at Mr. Trump’s behest.
“The Court orders that the 2026 congressional election in Texas shall proceed under the map that the Texas Legislature enacted in 2021,” the court said, issuing a preliminary injunction barring the use of the map drawn this summer.
In a 160-page opinion written by Judge Jeffrey V. Brown, who was appointed by Mr. Trump in 2019, the court found that “substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.”
The court cited a July letter from the Justice Department to Texas lawmakers, focused on the racial makeup of districts, in which federal prosecutors said the state’s 2021 map was unconstitutional because it included districts where no ethnic group had an outright majority.
The court said that was a “legally incorrect assertion.”
The irony, of course, is the only reason California drew a new congressional map (with approval from voters) is because Trump started it all in Texas.
Gov. Greg Abbott (lead photo), who instructed state lawmakers to redraw the congressional map this summer, said the state would appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
MAJOR NEWS: Federal judges, including a Trump appointee, just BLOCKED Texas Republicans from using their new gerrymandered congressional map in 2026, ruling it was likely an illegal racial gerrymander. TX must revert to its 2021 map as Trump’s redistricting power grab collapses.
— MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) November 18, 2025 at 10:50 AM
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