A federal court has delivered a stunning rebuke to Texas Republicans and the Trump administration by blocking the state’s newly redrawn congressional map — a plan designed to give the GOP a five-seat boost. In a 2-1 ruling, judges said the map appears to be an illegal race-based gerrymander and ordered the state to revert to the 2021 boundaries.
“The map ultimately passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor — the 2025 Map — achieved all but one of the racial objectives that DOJ demanded,” wrote U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Galveston-based Trump appointee, for the panel majority.
The ruling represents a significant setback for the White House’s nationwide effort to reshape congressional districts in Republicans’ favor. Texas’ five-seat plan was expected to deliver the largest GOP gains in the country this redistricting cycle. Republicans are already preparing an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Brown was joined by U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama, an El Paso-based Obama appointee. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jerry Smith, a Houston-based Reagan appointee, dissented but did not immediately explain his reasoning.
The court’s opinion sharply criticized the Justice Department’s role in prompting Texas to target districts with non-white majorities, referred to as “coalition districts.” Brown wrote that the DOJ’s July 7 letter “was challenging to unpack … because it contains so many factual, legal, and typographical errors” and that the selection of the four districts was “based entirely on their racial makeup.” According to the judges, this letter was the key factor motivating Texas Republicans to undertake the extraordinary redistricting effort.
Brown’s 160-page ruling scrutinized the lawmakers’ motives and concluded that their claims of race-blind, partisan mapmaking were “not believable.”
The court also dismissed concerns that undoing the new maps would disrupt the 2026 elections. “Simply put, the 2026 congressional election is not underway,” Brown wrote. “In any event, any disruption that would happen here is attributable to the Legislature, not the Court. The Legislature—not the Court—set the timetable for this injunction. The Legislature—not the Court—redrew Texas’s congressional map weeks before precinct-chair and candidate-filing periods opened. The State chose to ‘toy with its election laws close to’ the 2026 congressional election, though that is certainly its prerogative.”
The state’s candidate filing deadline is December 8. While courts and election officials usually hesitate to alter deadlines, adjustments remain possible.
Texas is not alone in facing legal challenges over redistricting. Missouri and North Carolina passed maps that net Republicans one red-leaning seat each. In Ohio, a bipartisan deal altered two Democratic-held seats in a Republican direction, though Democrats maintain the seats will remain competitive in 2026. Meanwhile, legal challenges continue in North Carolina and Missouri, reflecting Democrats’ ongoing strategy to use the courts to block Republican gerrymandering.
With Texas’ map blocked, Democrats’ five-seat pickup in California through Proposition 50 now cancels out the GOP’s gains this cycle. Redistricting battles continue to heat up in other states, including Indiana, where Republicans are being pressed to redraw maps to favor two more red-leaning districts. GOP Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray has resisted, warning his caucus lacks the votes, while President Trump tweeted that Republican Gov. Mike Braun “must produce on this.”
The Texas ruling also marks the culmination of a dramatic summer showdown, when Democrats staged a mass walkout to try to block the map. Celebrating Tuesday’s decision, Texas Minority Leader Gene Wu said, “Greg Abbott and his Republican cronies tried to silence Texans’ voices to placate Donald Trump, but now have delivered him absolutely nothing.”
