Overview
- The unsigned order stays a three‑judge panel’s injunction that found Texas’ 2025 map likely used race improperly and had directed a return to the 2021 lines.
- The majority referenced the Purcell principle and approaching deadlines, with Texas candidate filing due Dec. 8 and primaries early next year.
- Republicans engineered the map to yield as many as five additional GOP‑leaning House seats, potentially bolstering their slim majority in 2026.
- Justice Samuel Alito concurred that partisanship, not race, drove the plan and faulted challengers for offering no alternative map, while Justice Elena Kagan dissented that the district court’s race‑based findings were disregarded.
- The decision accelerates a nationwide redistricting fight, with California’s new map benefiting Democrats under court challenge, GOP‑favored maps advancing in North Carolina and Missouri, and a pending Louisiana case that could further reshape voting‑rights rules.