The ruling means the new map that favors Republicans will remain in place for the November congressional elections.
The U.S. Supreme Court on April 27 summarily reversed a lower court ruling that blocked Texas from implementing its mid-decade redistricting of the state’s congressional map.
The high court’s decision, which means the map will be used in elections this November, took the form of an unsigned order in Abbott v. League of United Latin American Citizens.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
The new ruling came after the Supreme Court in December 2025 upheld a redrawn election map expected to increase Republican representation in Texas’s U.S. House delegation.
The new order states that the lower court order was being set aside “for the reasons set forth” in the December 2025 decision.
In that ruling five months ago, the Supreme Court said Texas made “a strong showing” that it would suffer irreparable harm if a federal district court’s ruling were not stayed. The district court “violated” the Supreme Court’s ruling in Republican National Committee v. Democratic National Committee (2020), which held that lower federal courts should avoid altering election rules on the eve of an election.
“The District Court inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing much confusion and upsetting the delicate federal-state balance in elections,” the Supreme Court majority wrote.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that “Texas needs certainty on which map will govern the 2026 midterm elections.”
“[The district court failed] to apply the correct legal standards as set out clearly in our own case law,” the justice said.
Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson also dissented from that ruling.
Kagan wrote that “Texas largely divided its citizens along racial lines to create its new pro-Republican House map, in violation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.”
“The majority today loses sight of its proper role … [and in the process] ensures that many Texas citizens, for no good reason, will be placed in electoral districts because of their race,” she wrote.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
