The US supreme court has formally reinstated a redrawn Texas electoral map that was designed to add more Republicans to the US House of Representatives, as president Donald Trump’s party seeks to keep control of Congress in the November congressional elections.
The move by the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, formalises an interim decision it made in December to revive the map of US House districts in Texas.
The reinstated map - sought by Trump, approved in August 2025 by the Republican-led state legislature and signed by Republican governor Greg Abbott - could flip as many as five Democratic-held US House seats to Republicans.
As they did in December, the court’s three liberal justices dissented from Monday’s ruling.
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The supreme court reversed a lower court’s decision that had blocked Texas from using the map. The lower court had found the map likely to be racially discriminatory, in violation of US constitutional protections. Trump last year prodded Republican lawmakers to redraw state congressional maps to bolster his party’s chances in the midterms.
[ Texas gives final approval to aggressive redrawing of its congressional mapOpens in new window ]
The supreme court in February allowed California to use a new electoral map designed to give Democrats five more congressional seats after that Democratic-led state redrew its House districts in response to the action by Republicans in Texas.
Republicans hold slim majorities in both chambers of Congress. Ceding control of either the House or Senate to the Democrats in the elections would endanger Trump’s legislative agenda and open the door to Democratic-led congressional investigations targeting the president.
The process of redrawing maps, known as redistricting, generally occurs once a decade to reflect population changes as measured by the national census conducted every 10 years. Continuing and recently completed redistricting efforts by Republican and Democratic-held state legislatures, on the other hand, have been motivated by a desire for partisan advantage.
- Reuters
