A panel of three unelected judges issued an injunction Tuesday blocking Texas from using its newly drawn congressional map. If Texas loses the appeals process, the injunction could stand, which means the five seats Texas thought it was gaining will not materialize. But five seats that could materialize will be in California. Which means that Republicans in red states must step up or risk losing the House to Democrats permanently.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown ruled alongside Judge Davi Guaderrama in a 2-1 decision that the new map appears to be a race-based gerrymander, which is illegal.
“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” the majority opinion reads. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map.”