Texas cannot use its newly drawn congressional districts in the 2026 election, a three-judge federal panel ruled Tuesday, a major blow to Republicans who made the changes at the behest of President Donald Trump to carve out more GOP-friendly seats and protect the party’s fragile majority.
State officials are expected to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
In a 2-1 decision, the judges found that lawmakers likely engaged in unconstitutional racial gerrymandering when they dismantled “coalition districts” across the state and replaced them with single-race-majority districts.
The court ruled that race, not partisanship, was the state Legislature’s predominant motive, driven by pressure from Trump and a July 2025 DOJ letter that incorrectly claimed certain coalition districts were illegal.
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The judges concluded that the enacted map would cause irreparable harm and ordered the state to revert to the lines drawn in 2021 for the 2026 election.
“Lawmakers reportedly met that request to redistrict on purely partisan grounds with apprehension,” the ruling says. “But when the Trump Administration reframed its request as a demand to redistrict congressional seats based on their racial makeup, Texas lawmakers immediately jumped on board.”
The new map would have likely given Republicans five additional House seats, the largest number of any possible state redistricting effort.
Trump’s pressure on Texas set off a nationwide battle over mid-decade redistricting.
New district lines are usually drawn every 10 years, in the wake of the U.S. census.
It’s unclear how the ruling might affect other states that have launched their own efforts in recent weeks.
California voters earlier this month approved a proposition, spearheaded by Gov. Gavin Newsom, to redistrict the state to favor Democrats as a response to Texas’ push.
The redistricting fight has also reached a boiling point in Indiana. Trump is actively putting pressure on Republicans in the Hoosier state, including Gov. Mike Braun, to redistrict and eliminate the two Democratic-controlled seats in the state.
So far, Republicans have expressed concern about Trump’s plan and have not moved to enact it.
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