The Supreme Court temporarily reinstated Texas Republicans’ redrawn congressional map

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday temporarily allowed Texas to use a Republican-redrawn congressional map that a federal court blocked earlier this week.

Alito’s order comes after Texas asked the Supreme Court to intervene following a ruling by a panel of federal judges on Tuesday that blocked the state from using new district lines designed to help Republicans pick up five additional House seats in next year’s midterm elections.

The lower court ruling, signed by Judge Jeffrey Brown – President Donald Trump’s nominee – had ordered Texas to use a previous map drawn in 2021 instead, after finding that “substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map.”

The administrative moratorium is a temporary ruling that allows Texas to continue using its new map for the time being while the Supreme Court reviews the case.

The Supreme Court ordered civil rights groups that objected to the map to file a response by 5 p.m. on Monday. The deadline to file candidates in Texas before the March primary is December 8.

The district court’s decision represents a major setback for Trump, who has urged Republicans in Texas and across the country to enact new maps to help shore up the party’s narrow majority in the House of Representatives.

While congressional maps are typically reevaluated at the beginning of each decade, when new census data becomes available, the redrawn Texas map sparked a national redistricting battle mid-cycle between both parties. Republicans in Missouri and North Carolina also passed new maps this year to strengthen their party, while Trump continues to pressure GOP lawmakers in Indiana to do the same.

The Justice Department joined a lawsuit filed by Republicans challenging the Democratic-drawn map in California that voters approved earlier this month.