Overview
- Justice Samuel Alito issued an administrative stay that temporarily restores Texas’s 2025 congressional map while the Supreme Court reviews the case.
- A three-judge panel had blocked the map as a likely racial gerrymander and ordered a return to the 2021 lines, drawing a blistering dissent from Judge Jerry E. Smith.
- The Justice Department, through Solicitor General John Sauer, urged the Court to side with Texas, arguing the Legislature acted for partisan, not racial, reasons.
- Voting-rights groups filed responses Monday saying the Purcell principle should not shield the map, noting the filing window remains open and reverting to the prior map would reduce confusion.
- The outcome, expected quickly, could influence roughly five seats in Texas and the balance of the U.S. House in 2026, as related redistricting fights play out in states such as California and in a separate Louisiana case on the Voting Rights Act.