The US Supreme Court formally reinstated on Monday a redrawn Texas electoral map designed to add more Republicans to the House of Representatives, as Donald Trump's party seeks to retain control of Congress in the November midterm 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 Governor Greg Abbott – could flip as many as five currently Democratic-held seats to Republicans. The Supreme Court reversed a lower court's decision that had blocked Texas from using the map, after the lower court found it likely to be racially discriminatory in violation of US constitutional protections.
As they did in December, the court's three liberal justices dissented from Monday's ruling. Trump last year prodded Republican lawmakers to redraw state congressional maps to bolster his party's chances in the midterms.
In February, the Supreme Court 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 currently hold slim majorities in both chambers of Congress. Ceding control of either the House or Senate to the Democrats in the upcoming elections would endanger Trump's legislative agenda and open the door to Democratic-led congressional investigations.
The process of redrawing maps, known as redistricting, generally occurs once a decade to reflect population changes measured by the national census. However, ongoing and recently completed redistricting efforts by Republican- and Democratic-held state legislatures have been motivated by a desire for partisan advantage.
