GOP control of House at risk after court blocks Texas map
A federal court blocked Texas from moving forward with a new congressional map hastily drawn in recent months that would give Republicans five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s midterm elections.
Tuesday’s decision dealt a major political blow to the Trump administration, which restarted a nationwide arms race earlier this year by encouraging Texas lawmakers to redraw congressional district lines in the middle of the decade; This is an extraordinary move that disrupts traditional practices.
In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge federal court panel in El Paso ordered the state to revert to maps it drew in 2021, saying there was “substantial evidence suggesting Texas racially interfered with the 2025 Map.”
Texas’ Republican governor, Greg Abbott, who at Trump’s behest directed GOP state lawmakers to proceed with the plan, vowed Tuesday that the state would appeal the decision all the way to the Supreme Court.
Californians responded to Texas’ move by voting to approve a new, interim congressional map for the state on November 4, giving Democrats the opportunity to pick up five new seats.
The proposal, originally put forward by Gov. Gavin Newsom and known as Proposition 50, included trigger language that would allow new California maps to go into effect depending on whether Texas approves new congressional districts.
But the last-minute removal of that language increased the likelihood that Democrats would enter the 2026 midterm elections with a distinct advantage. Paul Mitchell, the Democratic redistricting expert who drew the maps for Proposition 50, said that because Texas had already passed its redistricting plan, that language was removed and the trigger was no longer necessary.
“Our legislature eliminated the trigger because Texas already had it,” Mitchell said Tuesday. he said.
Newsom celebrated the decision in a statement to The Times and also posted it on social media site X.
“Donald Trump and Greg Abbott played with fire, they got burned, and democracy won,” Newsom said. “This decision is a win for Texas and every American who fights for free and fair elections.”
Legal experts had warned Texas’ bid would increase invite accusations of racial gerrymandering and legal challenges Maps of California do not do this.
Texas’ new redistricting plan appears to have been spurred by a letter from Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, who threatened Texas with legal action over three “coalition districts” that she claimed were unconstitutional.
There are multiple minority communities in the coalition areas, and none of them constitute a majority. Texas redraws all three of the newly structured districts it passed, potentially “fracturing” racially diverse communities while preserving white-majority districts, legal experts said.
Although Supreme Court decisions on redistricting have been sporadic, the justices have generally ruled that purely political redistricting is legal but racial gerrymandering is not; It’s a harder line to draw in southern states, where racial and political lines overlap.
In 2023, addressing a redistricting fight over the representation of Black voters in Alabama, the high court ruled: Allen vs. Milligan It says gerrymandering is unconstitutional to discriminate against minority voters and orders the Southern state to create a second minority-majority district.
The Justice Department is also suing California to prevent its new maps from being used in next year’s election.
Times writer Melody Gutierrez contributed to this report.
This story first appeared on: Los Angeles Times.
