US Supreme Court approves Texas congressional map

AUSTIN, Texas — The U.S. Supreme Court has finalized its approval of Texas’s controversial 2021 congressional map, known as House Bill 3, clearing its use for the 2026 elections and all future federal races. The decision, handed down on December 4, 2023, without explanation, effectively ends a years-long legal battle that alleged the map diluted the voting power of minority communities, particularly Latino and Black voters, across the state.

The map was drawn by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature following the 2020 census, which awarded Texas two new congressional seats due to its booming population growth. Civil rights organizations and the U.S. Department of Justice swiftly challenged the map, arguing it constituted racial gerrymandering and intentionally discriminated against voters of color, violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th and 15th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

Critics, including groups like the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, pointed out that while people of color accounted for 95% of Texas’s population growth between 2010 and 2020, the new map created only one additional majority-Hispanic congressional district, District 15. They contended the map deliberately packed minority voters into a few districts or cracked them across multiple districts to diminish their electoral influence, despite their significant demographic contributions.

Initially, a three-judge panel from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in El Paso largely sided with the challengers. In December 2021, the panel issued a preliminary injunction, concluding that the map likely diluted the votes of Latino and Black citizens and that state lawmakers had indeed acted with discriminatory intent when crafting the district lines. This injunction would have prevented the map from being used in the 2022 elections.

However, the Supreme Court quickly intervened at the time, putting the lower court’s injunction on hold, which allowed the map to be used for the 2022 midterms. With its latest ruling, the high court has now gone a step further, dismissing the entire case without providing a detailed explanation for its decision. This action vacates the district court’s previous findings of discriminatory intent and clears the path for H.B. 3 to be used in all upcoming federal elections, starting definitively with 2026.

Legal experts suggest the Supreme Court’s dismissal without explanation is a procedural move that allows the map to stand without engaging with the complex factual findings of the lower court regarding discriminatory intent. This outcome is a significant victory for Texas Republicans, who have consistently defended the map as complying with state and federal law, arguing that population shifts and political considerations, rather than race, guided their redistricting choices.

“This ruling is a grave disappointment for Texas’s growing minority populations who deserve fair representation,” said a spokesperson for a coalition of civil rights groups following the decision. “Despite clear evidence of discriminatory intent from the lower court, the Supreme Court has chosen to sidestep justice, effectively telling voters of color that their voices can be legally suppressed.”

Conversely, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hailed the decision, stating it affirmed the state’s right to draw its own electoral maps. “The Supreme Court’s decision validates the Legislature’s careful and lawful work in crafting these districts,” Paxton’s office stated, emphasizing the importance of state sovereignty in the redistricting process.

The ruling adds to a growing trend of federal courts, including the Supreme Court, making it more challenging to prove racial gerrymandering claims, particularly under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Texas has a long history of litigation over its redistricting maps, with past versions frequently facing challenges over alleged racial discrimination. This latest decision marks a definitive conclusion to one of the most contentious gerrymandering battles in recent Texas history, ensuring that the congressional landscape established almost five years ago will continue to shape federal elections for the foreseeable future.