Court blocks Texas’ congressional map, dealing blow to GOP’s House hopes

A federal court on Tuesday blocked Texas Republicans’ new congressional map, saying it illegally denied minorities their voting rights.

In a 2-1 ruling, the court said Gov. Greg Abbott and the Republican-controlled Legislature “racially gerrymandered” the new map to eliminate seats held by Black and Hispanic lawmakers. That violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the court ruled.

“Without an injunction, the racial minorities the Plaintiff Groups represent will be forced to be represented in Congress based on likely unconstitutional racial classifications for at least two years,” U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown wrote for the majority.

Texas immediately filed a notice of appeal, but the decision was a severe blow to Republicans. They had been counting on netting as many as five additional congressional seats under the new map.

It’s particularly troubling to Republicans, given that California retaliated by adopting a map that nets Democrats as many as five new seats. That California map is also being challenged, but if the situation stands, Republicans will likely emerge with a significant loss in the redistricting battle.

In a preliminary injunction, the court ordered Texas to proceed with next year’s elections under the map adopted in 2021. Democrats hold 13 of 38 seats, or 34%, in a state where Vice President Kamala Harris collected 42% of the vote last year.

The case hits on weighty issues of race and voting.

Texas, prodded by President Trump and the Justice Department, said it had chosen to rewrite its maps to eliminate seats drawn in 2021 specifically for racial and ethnic minorities to have more political sway.

The state declared those seats to be illegal racial gerrymanders and said it would correct the map by eliminating them.

Judge Brown said the correction itself was an illegal racial gerrymander.

He specifically rejected the Justice Department’s claims that Texas’ 2021 map illegally discriminated in favor of minorities. He said the map was drawn on race-neutral principles such as partisanship.

“By all current appearances, there was no past discrimination in favor of minority coalitions for the state to remedy — and, therefore, no ‘strong basis in evidence’ to support the state’s purposeful and predominant consideration of race in the 2025 redistricting process,” the judge wrote in a 160-page opinion.

The case was heard by a three-judge panel. Judge Brown, a Trump appointee, was joined by Senior District Judge David Guaderrama, an Obama appointee.

Dissenting was Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee who the court signaled would file his own opinion.

Mr. Abbott, who pushed the redistricting, said Judge Brown got the facts wrong about racial motives.

“The Legislature redrew our congressional maps to better reflect Texans’ conservative voting preferences — and for no other reason,” he said. “Any claim that these maps are discriminatory is absurd and unsupported by the testimony offered during 10 days of hearings.”

State Attorney General Ken Paxton cast the ruling, written by a Trump appointee, as “the radical left.” He said that in addition to the formal appeal, he will ask the Supreme Court to stay the ruling, which could allow Texas to use the map in next year’s elections.

He cast Texas’ map as part of the rough-and-tumble of politics.

“Democratic states across the country, from California to Illinois to New York, have systematically reduced representation of Republican voters in their congressional delegations. But when Republicans respond in kind, Democrats rely on false accusations of racism to secure a partisan advantage,” he said.

The case would toss another Trump-related hot potato into the justices’ laps.

It also could get swept up in another case pending at the high court involving Louisiana’s map and racial lines.

Louisiana was ordered to add another majority-Black district to its map ahead of the 2024 elections.

During oral arguments last month, the justices seemed inclined to reconsider how much the Voting Rights Act can compel states to create special majority-minority seats, also known as “opportunity districts.”

If Tuesday’s ruling stands, it would be a major fumble for the Trump administration, which sparked Texas’ redistricting push by telling the state some of its congressional districts are no longer legally defensible.

The result has been a cascading domino effect, with California retaliating through its own redistricting to offset the expected Republican gains in Texas.

Missouri and North Carolina, meanwhile, have delivered more Republican-friendly maps.

Virginia, where Democrats control the General Assembly, is expected to retaliate with a Democratic-friendly gerrymander early next year.

The court in Tuesday’s case could have sent the issue back to the Texas Legislature to redraw its map again, focusing on politics rather than race.

Judge Brown instead ordered the state to proceed under the 2021 map, saying it was the path of least resistance at this point.