Court blocks new Texas congressional map drawn by Republicans

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By Brad Brooks, Andrew Hay and Costas Pitas

(Reuters) -A federal court on Tuesday blocked Texas from using a new congressional map intended to flip several Democratic-held U.S. House of Representatives seats to Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections, faulting Governor Greg Abbott for directing the legislature to draw it based on race.

The 2-1 ruling by a three-judge panel dealt a major blow to Texas Republicans who had been urged by President Donald Trump to redraw the boundaries of state congressional districts to maximize the number of Republicans who could be elected and protect his party’s narrow U.S. House majority.

Abbott labelled the ruling “absurd” and his administration immediately filed a notice of appeal to the Supreme Court.

The move by Texas to create a new map, which could tilt as many as five Democratic-held seats to Republicans, set off a nationwide partisan redistricting battle, playing out in both Republican-governed and Democratic-led states.

But the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas judicial panel ruled in favor of civil rights groups that challenged the map, blocking its implementation and ruling that the state’s previous map from 2021 must be used for next year’s congressional elections. Republicans currently control 25 of 38 U.S. House seats in Texas under that 2021 map.

In writing the opinion, Judge Jeffrey Brown, who was appointed by Trump in 2019, said the court found “substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered” its new map, in violation of federal law. David Guaderrama, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, joined the opinion. Judge Jerry Smith, appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, was the dissenting vote. 

Gerrymandering involves redrawing electoral district boundaries to marginalize a certain set of voters and increase the influence of others. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 forbade federal courts from intervening in cases involving gerrymandering done for partisan advantage. Gerrymandering predominantly driven by race remains illegal.

BASED ON RACE

Tuesday’s ruling found Abbott “explicitly directed the Legislature to redistrict based on race,” after receiving a letter from Trump’s Justice Department threatening legal action if the state did not come up with a new map. That Justice Department letter itself, the judges found, was based on a “legally incorrect assertion”. 

The result was a map that violated the U.S. Constitution’s promise of equal protection under the law and protection against racial discrimination in voting, according to the order.

The ruling marked a victory for Democrats and civil rights groups in Texas who had argued that the new map further diluted the voting power of racial minorities. The NAACP civil rights group noted in a statement on Tuesday that “the state of Texas is only 40% white, but white voters control over 73% of the state’s congressional seats.”

Gloria Leal, a lawyer for the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the new map packed minority voters into some districts and took them out of other districts, creating fewer districts where Hispanic and Black voters together were a majority. 

She said that while the motive may have been to gain a political advantage, Texas Republicans “racially gerrymandered and diluted the power of minority communities, particularly Hispanics and African-Americans.”

The League of United Latin American Citizens was a plaintiff in the case.

Abbott said in a statement that “any claim that these maps are discriminatory is absurd,” and Texas filed notice of its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court later Tuesday. Attorney General Pamela Bondi strongly disagreed with the court ruling, saying in an X post that “Texas’s map was drawn the right way for the right reasons.” 

Tuesday’s ruling marked the latest setback in Trump’s push to tilt political maps. Indiana Republicans on Friday abandoned a legislative session that had been called to enact a new congressional map. 

A handful of races could decide which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives, with Republicans currently holding a 219-214 majority.

Democratic-governed California reacted to the Texas redistricting by initiating its own effort targeting five Republican-held districts in the state. California voters in November overwhelmingly approved a new map beneficial to Democrats. The Trump administration last week sued California to stop its new redistricting maps from taking effect.

Virginia has advanced a plan to redraw its political maps, meaning Democrats could find themselves ahead in the redistricting fight should the Texas court decision hold. 

(Reporting by Brad Brooks, Costas Pitas and Andrew Hay; Editing by Donna Bryson, Will Dunham and Stephen Coates)