US Supreme Court will allow Texas to use redrawn voting maps

The U.S. Supreme Court will allow Texas to use a new congressional map that could help Republicans consolidate their majority in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.

Thursday’s unsigned ruling comes after Texas filed an emergency request last month to stay a lower court ruling that blocked the new map, which was passed by the state Legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in August.

In a seemingly 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court said in its “preliminary assessment of this case” that Texas met the conditions for emergency relief and that the lower court “made at least two serious errors.”

Three liberal justices dissented.

In November, a lower Texas court said 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.

Challenges to redistricting in the middle of the decade came after Texas Democratic lawmakers fled the state over the summer to block voting on the new map, helping spark a race in other states to change their maps as well.

California proposed new maps to offset Texas’ gains, which voters approved in the November special election.