US court blocks Texas from using newly redrawn voting maps
A US federal court has blocked Texas from using new electoral maps drawn by Republicans in a bid to consolidate their majority in the 2026 midterm elections.
The court said the evidence indicated the new voting districts were “racially redistricted” and ordered the state to use the congressional lines they had in place before their redistricting earlier this year.
Republicans in the state Legislature redrew voting districts in the middle of the decade, prompting Democratic- and Republican-led states to follow suit and adjust their maps to gain political advantage ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott vowed to “promptly appeal to the United States Supreme Court” against Tuesday’s decision.
Gerrymandering – the redrawing of electoral districts to favor one political party – is practiced by both major parties and is legal unless deemed racially motivated.
Critics argue that the process allows politicians to choose their voters, rather than voters choosing their elected officials.
The 2-1 decision in Texas orders the state to set aside newly approved maps and instead use those created in 2021 by the Texas Legislature.
“The public perception in this case is that this is a matter of policy,” U.S. Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee, wrote in the ruling.
“Certainly, politics played a role in shaping the 2025 map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially altered the 2025 map.”
House Democratic Leader Gene Wu welcomed the decision, saying in a statement that “a federal court has just stopped one of the most brazen attempts to steal our democracy that Texas has ever seen.”
“Greg Abbott and his Republican cronies tried to silence the voices of Texans to appease Donald Trump, but did absolutely nothing for him,” Wu said.
Governor Abbott said in a statement that the decision was “clearly wrong and undermines the authority of the U.S. Constitution.”
“The Legislature redrew our congressional maps to better reflect Texans’ conservative voting preferences — and for no other reason,” Abbott said. “Any assertion that these maps are discriminatory is absurd and unsupported by the testimony presented during the ten days of hearings.”
The maps passed in August by the Texas Legislature and approved by the state’s Republican governor create five new Republican-leaning districts.
California voted to redraw its own maps earlier this month, leading to the creation of five Democratic-leaning seats.
Earlier this month, a Utah judge threw out an electoral map drawn up by Republican lawmakers and ordered the adoption of a new map that would create a Democratic-leaning district in the state.
