Overview
- Justice Samuel Alito issued the temporary order Friday night, pausing a lower-court injunction and requesting responses from plaintiffs by Monday as Texas seeks a ruling by Dec. 1.
- A three-judge panel in El Paso had found the 2025 map likely an unlawful racial gerrymander and ordered a return to the 2021 lines, drawing a 104-page dissent from Judge Jerry Smith.
- Texas told the justices that politics, not race, drove the mid‑decade redraw and warned of election disruption with a Dec. 8 candidate filing deadline and March 3 primary date approaching.
- The map was advanced at President Donald Trump’s urging and designed to create up to five additional Republican-leaning House seats, part of a broader redistricting fight that includes California’s Proposition 50.
- The Supreme Court is also weighing a Louisiana case that could alter how courts assess race in redistricting, a development that could affect the Texas litigation.