Texas officials are asking the Supreme Court for an urgent ruling to revive the state’s newly-drawn congressional map expected to net five additional Republican seats.
The emergency appeal filed Friday evening asks the high court to put a hold on a lower court’s decision Tuesday that found racial considerations likely unconstitutionally tinged the new map.
Texas’ petition formally asks the justices to weigh in on a matter that could determine control of the House in next year’s midterm elections. A ruling by the high court to restore Texas’ new map would make Democrats’ path to retaking the majority more difficult. Justice Samuel Alito ordered civil rights groups challenging the new map to respond to Texas’ request by Monday afternoon.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and the lawmakers who approved the new map say the lower-court decision came “far too late in the day” — scrapping the new congressional boundaries would wreak havoc on an election that’s already underway, they say.
“The chaos caused by such an injunction is obvious: campaigning had already begun, candidates had already gathered signatures and filed applications to appear on the ballot under the 2025 map, and early voting for the March 3, 2026, primary was only 91 days away,” Texas Solicitor General William Peterson wrote.
Lawyers for Texas asked the Supreme Court to grant an immediate administrative stay of the lower-court ruling and a longer-term stay by Dec. 1, just one week before the state’s filing deadline for congressional races.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, who authored the 2-1 majority decision throwing out Texas’ new congressional map, concluded that the inconvenience caused by reverting to an older map was outweighed by the prospect of requiring Texans to live under an unconstitutional racial gerrymander for two years. Though courts are guided by a longstanding principle to avoid making significant changes too close to an election cycle, that rule is amorphous, Brown noted, and there is still time for the state to reorient to the earlier map.
Texas’ attorneys also asked the high court to hear and reverse the earlier decision, but that is highly unlikely to happen in time for the coming year’s races, so the court’s action on the emergency stay request will likely dictate whether Texas’ changes take effect in 2026 or the previous map remains.
The emergency application went to Alito in the first instance because he oversees urgent matters arising in the 5th Circuit, which includes Texas. Alito is expected to refer the matter to the full court.
