Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday temporarily permitted Texas to use Republicans’ redrawn congressional map that a federal court blocked earlier this week.
Alito’s order comes after Texas asked the high court to intervene following a ruling from a panel of federal judges on Tuesday that barred the state from using new district lines designed to help Republicans pick up an additional five House seats in next year’s midterm elections.
The lower court’s ruling, signed by Judge Jeffrey Brown — a nominee of President Donald Trump — had ordered Texas to use a previous map that was drawn in 2021 instead, after finding that “substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.”
The administrative stay is a temporary ruling that allows Texas to continue to use its new map for now, as the Supreme Court reviews the case.
The Supreme Court ordered the civil rights advocacy groups that challenged the map to file a response by 5 p.m. on Monday. The filing deadline for candidates in Texas ahead of the March primary is Dec. 8.
The district court’s decision dealt a significant setback for Trump, who has urged Republicans in Texas and around the country to enact new maps to help shore up the party’s narrow House majority.
While congressional maps are typically reassessed at the start of each decade, when new census data is available, Texas’ redrawn map triggered a national mid-cycle redistricting battle between both parties. Republicans in Missouri and North Carolina also passed new maps this year to boost their party, while Trump is continuing to pressure GOP lawmakers in Indiana to do the same.
The Justice Department joined a Republican-led lawsuit challenging a Democratic-drawn map in California that voters approved earlier this month.
Lawrence Hurley contributed.
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