Texas’ newly redrawn Republican-friendly congressional map is back in place, at least for now, after Justice Samuel Alito temporarily restored the map while the full U.S. Supreme Court considers whether a lower court was correct in striking it down.
The map is expected to net Republicans up to five additional seats in the 2026 midterm elections if it remains in place, Politico reported.
Alito’s order allows Texas officials to continue preparing for primary elections under the GOP-backed map. The move came shortly after the state asked the justices for an emergency ruling to revive the redistricting plan championed by President Donald Trump.
Texas filed the appeal late Friday and asked the court to pause a lower court ruling that found the map was likely based on unconstitutional racial considerations.
The petition formally asked the high court to intervene in a case that could help decide control of the House in the next midterm cycle.
A longer-term ruling restoring the map would make it far harder for Democrats to regain a majority.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and state lawmakers argued the lower court waited too long to block the map.
They said undoing the new boundaries would disrupt an election season that is already underway.
“The chaos caused by such an injunction is obvious: campaigning had already begun, candidates had already gathered signatures and filed applications to appear on the ballot under the 2025 map, and early voting for the March 3, 2026, primary was only 91 days away,” Texas Solicitor General William Peterson wrote.
State officials asked the court to issue a stay by Dec. 1, one week before candidates must file for 2026 congressional races.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown wrote the 2 to 1 majority decision scrapping the map.
He said the inconvenience of reverting to an older map was outweighed by the prospect of forcing Texans to live under what he called an unconstitutional racial gerrymander for two years.
Brown noted that courts generally avoid major election changes close to voting but said that rule is “amorphous” and that Texas still has time to shift back to the prior map.
Texas rejected the finding that race played a role in the redistricting process.
“The State Defendants presented a specific, detailed, non-racial, unrebutted explanation for every single redistricting decision,” Peterson wrote.
He said the driving motive “from the start” was Republican political advantage, noting that Trump publicly urged Texas and other GOP-leaning states to redraw their maps before 2026.
Peterson argued the lower court wrongly inferred bad faith by suggesting lawmakers should have turned Austin’s lone Democratic district into a Republican district, which he called impossible given the city’s partisan makeup.
Texas also asked the Supreme Court to take up the full case and reverse the earlier ruling.
The justices are unlikely to hear the case in time to affect the coming year’s races, so the emergency stay will likely determine whether the new map or the old one governs the 2026 election.
Alito received the request because he handles emergency matters from the 5th Circuit, which includes Texas. He is expected to refer the stay request to the full court.
He signaled urgency by giving the civil rights groups challenging the map until Monday at 5 p.m. Eastern time to respond.
