Texas Republicans just took their first major loss in the fight to revive their congressional gerrymander ahead of the 2026 midterms. A three-judge federal panel has rejected the state’s motion to put a pause on the ruling that struck down their newly drawn map — a predictable outcome that now opens the door for Texas to run straight to the Supreme Court.
Brennan Center voting-rights counsel Michael Li broke the news Friday. “The 3-judge panel in Texas has denied the state’s request to stay the ruling striking down the congressional map,” he reported. Judge Jerry Smith, the lone dissenter, wanted to grant the stay, but the majority didn’t budge. As Li noted, “Under procedural rules, Texas is now clear to seek a stay at SCOTUS.”
Once the state files, the process shifts into familiar territory. The request lands first with Justice Samuel Alito. “At SCOTUS, once a stay request is filed, the normal process is that the justice with responsibility for the circuit that a state is in (in this case, Justice Alito) will ask for a response from the other side & then refer the motion to the entire court for decision,” Li explained.
This all stems from a stunning ruling earlier in the week, when a 2–1 panel threw out the map entirely. Drawn at Donald Trump’s request, the map carved up five Democratic districts to make them more Republican-friendly. But the majority found something far more serious: that lawmakers had relied on illegal racial criteria, tearing apart Black districts while mostly leaving white districts untouched — a violation of both the 14th and 15th Amendments.
Judge Jeff Brown, a conservative Trump appointee and former Texas Supreme Court justice, wrote the majority opinion and didn’t shy away from the blunt reality of what the state had done. “The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” he wrote. “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.”
Judge Jerry Smith’s dissent, meanwhile, read like a political broadside. He accused Brown of misconduct and claimed, “The main winners from Judge Brown’s opinion are George Soros and Gavin Newsom.” His opinion didn’t do much to undermine the majority’s findings, but it did show just how polarized this fight has become.
For now, the ruling against Texas stands. The state is gearing up to ask the Supreme Court for a rescue, and with the Court’s recent history on redistricting, Republicans may feel confident. But they’ll be appealing a decision that doesn’t mince words: this wasn’t just partisan hardball — the panel found racial gerrymandering at the core of the map, and that’s a much harder thing to defend.
Read the ruling below:
