Next year’s midterm elections are still over 11 months away. If the legal fireworks over the redistricting battle in the state of Texas are any indication, it’s going to be quite the rodeo.
At the behest of President Donald Trump, GOP state lawmakers created a new congressional map in 2025 intended to secure an additional five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. However, things took an unexpected turn on November 18, 2025, with a federal court’s decision that the new Texas congressional map was racially gerrymandered.
In a majority decision, the three-judge panel agreed with the plaintiffs, a collection of civil rights groups, that the new map was likely unconstitutional. A letter from the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division chief, Harmeet Dhillon, to Texas lawmakers was crucial in determining that the redistricting effort focused on racial makeup rather than partisan gerrymandering.
Enjoining Texas Republicans from using the recently passed map, the court order stipulated that Texas must use a previous version created in 2021 for the upcoming November 2026 congressional election. As might be expected, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that the state would file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
That’s Not the Way, DOJ
With the Voting Rights Act having some of its protections curtailed through Supreme Court decisions, and SCOTUS set to hear another important case this term in Louisiana v. Callais, the battles over the congressional districts that determine U.S. House seats have perhaps never been more hotly contested. The Court ruling in Rucho v. Common Cause more or less gave state lawmakers the green light to redraw districts to the advantage of the political party in power. However, gerrymandering to negatively affect voting along racial lines remains a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Most of the redistricting for congressional seats takes place after a census. For example, Texas created a new map in 2021 following the 2020 U.S. Census. Currently, Texas is represented in the U.S. House by 25 Republicans and 12 Democrats, with one vacancy in the process of being filled.
Citing the overall voting totals from the state in the 2024 elections, President Trump felt that he deserved more GOP representation in the U.S. House. In a letter from Dhillon, the DOJ instructed Texas to conduct a mid-decade redistricting. While uncommon, doing so isn’t illegal … unless the gerrymandering focus is on racial representation, as opposed to political affiliation. There was also concern over several steps skipped during the process, such as public review of the proposed map.
Dhillon’s letter, which the federal judges described as “filled with factual, legal, and typographical errors,” undermined Texas’s claims that the 2025 map was redrawn to reflect partisan gerrymandering. The panel was dubious that it was a coincidence that the map’s creator, who’d spoken with the White House and the DOJ while drafting it, managed to achieve three of the four specific racial directives in and around non-white sections of Houston demanded by Dhillon’s missive.
Hatch, Chickens, Count, Etc.
Tuesday’s ruling couldn’t have been welcome news for the Trump administration. In the face of Indiana backing down from its own redistricting plans and the passing of California’s voter-approved Prop 50, the plan to have the Texas House and state Senate claw away a few crucial U.S. House seats has so far not turned out as planned.
Voting rights lawsuits are heard by a circuit judge and two district judges, and unlike most federal lawsuits, can only be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. While the emergency motion will be considered by Justice Samuel Alito.
To make matters more difficult for Texas Republicans, the deadline for registering as a candidate in the March 2026 primaries for U.S. House seats is December 8. Instead of having an additional five seats in their pocket, the GOP may be forced to play on a field that’s a little more level than they’d hoped.
Related Resources
- Battles Over Gerrymandering Precede Looming Supreme Court Case (FindLaw’s Federal Courts)
- Courts Continue To Pass the Buck on Gerrymandering Cases (FindLaw’s Supreme Court)
- How U.S. Elections Work (FindLaw’s Voting Law)
