On Thursday the Supreme Court temporarily paused a lower court injunction that tried to stop Texas from enacting its new congressional map.
‘The District Court improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing much confusion and upsetting the delicate federal-state balance in elections.’
In a major defeat for Democrats, the U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily paused a lower court injunction that attempted to prevent Texas from enacting its new congressional map. The ruling guarantees that the map will be used for the 2026 midterm elections.
In its Thursday order, the high court granted Texas’ request to temporarily stay an injunction issued by a three-judge district court last month. As The Federalist’s Brianna Lyman reported, in its order, the lower court’s majority (2-1) argued that the Lone Star State’s new congressional map — which could help Republicans net five additional seats — “appears to be a race-based gerrymander (which is illegal).”
The panel’s ruling drew a sharp dissent from Judge Jerry Smith, who characterized the majority’s decision as the “most blatant exercise of judicial activism” that he had “ever witnessed” after nearly four decades of serving as a federal judge. The Reagan appointee further admonished plaintiffs’ arguments against the map as “both perverse and bizarre.”
The Supreme Court’s newest order comes more than a week after Associate Justice Samuel Alito entered an administrative stay on the lower court injunction to allow the full court to consider Texas’ application for relief.
