Alito Leads 6–3 Shadow Docket Ruling on Texas Map
The Supreme Court used the shadow docket on Monday to let Texas use its 2025 congressional map for the 2026 midterms. The 6–3 ruling reversed a lower court decision that had blocked the districts after a trial found Texas had used race unlawfully in drawing them.
The map now stays in place for the next election cycle unless another court order changes it. For Texas voters, that means the districts drawn in 2025 will be the ones on the ballot in 2026, including the lines that affect how many seats Republicans can target.
Texas District Court Record
A lower court opinion written by a Trump appointee said Texas unconstitutionally diluted the voting power of racial minorities in its newly shaped districts. The district court reached that conclusion after a nine-day trial that included dozens of experts and more than 3,000 pages of evidence.
The court found that Texas had unconstitutionally used race in its 2025 mapmaking. It also found that Texas mapmakers attempted to rig the election for Texas Republicans in 2026 by spreading out Black and Hispanic voters away from one another.
Alito Concurrence
Justice Samuel Alito wrote a concurrence joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. He said the lower court had failed to honor “the presumption of legislative good faith that the Texas Legislature earned.”
The majority’s 6–3 vote ended the district court’s hold on the map through the shadow docket, and the Supreme Court had already stayed the lower court’s decision in December, allowing the new Texas map to go into effect. President Donald Trump had asked Texas in 2025 to rewrite its maps midcycle to try to win more safe seats for the GOP.
2026 Midterms Map
Texas’ mapmakers were working in a setting where partisan map-drawing is allowed, but race cannot be the predominant factor. The district court’s record made race the issue; the Supreme Court’s order put the map back in place for the 2026 midterms.
That leaves Texas voters with new lines already in force and a map that will shape the next House race under the districts the justices allowed to stand.
