Federal Court Blocks Texas 2025 Redistricting Map as Racial Gerrymandering, Orders 2021 Maps for 2026

A three-judge federal panel in El Paso issued a preliminary injunction blocking Texas's 2025 congressional redistricting map, finding it constituted racial gerrymandering. Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee, wrote that map drawers "purposefully manipulated the districts' racial numbers" to convert coalition districts to single-race-majority districts. The court ordered Texas to use its 2021 maps for the 2026 elections. Ironically, the 2025 map was drawn at DOJ's urging, after AG Harmeet Dhillon alleged the 2021 maps themselves violated the Voting Rights Act.