(Washington) The United States Supreme Court on Thursday authorized Texas to use its new electoral map aimed at allowing Republicans to win more seats in the 2026 midterm elections, a success for Donald Trump.
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By six votes to three, those of the conservative judges against those of the progressives, the Court overturned a first instance decision suspending the use of this map on the grounds that the division appeared to have been carried out “on racial grounds”, which is illegal.
The conservative majority of the Supreme Court notably criticized the first instance court for “wrongly interfering” in an electoral campaign “causing a lot of confusion”.
Justice Elena Kagan, speaking for the three progressives, disagreed.
“The Court announces today that Texas will be able to conduct next year’s elections with a map that the trial court determined violated our frequently repeated instructions on the use of racial criteria in redistricting,” she laments.
At the heart of the debate: partisan electoral division, known as “gerrymandering”, consisting of moving the borders of constituencies according to the interests of the ruling party in each state.
The Supreme Court concluded in 2019 that this butchering did not fall within the jurisdiction of the federal courts. But it remains prohibited when it is practiced on racial grounds and no longer on political affiliation, while ethnic minorities traditionally vote more for Democrats than for Republicans.
Attorney General Pam Bondi praised Texas “for advancing the rule of law.” “Federal courts do not have the right to interfere in a state’s decision to redraw legislative maps,” she added on X, accusing trial judges of having judged in a “partisan” manner.
“Redder”
PHOTO JASON FOCHTMAN, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Texas Governor Greg Abbott
Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott was also quick to welcome the Supreme Court’s decision. “We won!” Texas is officially – and legally – redder,” he wrote on X, referring to the color of the Republican Party, blue being that of the Democrats.
The latter reacted strongly.
“The conservative majority of the Supreme Court has once again undermined its credibility by approving without discussion a racially manipulated electoral map in Texas,” Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the Democratic minority in the House of Representatives, wrote in a statement.
“Republicans know that extremists can only win by cheating,” he added.
The new electoral map of Texas was definitively adopted in August by the House of Representatives of this vast conservative southern state.
President Donald Trump had publicly pressured Republican officials to carry out this redistricting, which aims to preserve the narrow majority of Republicans in Congress beyond the next legislative elections.
Sectors with a Latino or African-American majority, where Democratic candidate Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential election, were thus fragmented and attached to constituencies won by the right to dilute the Democratic vote and allow the Republicans to glean up to five additional seats.
Seized by African-American and Latino voters who considered this electoral redistribution as “discriminatory” against minorities, the court suspended the law in mid-November and ordered the authorities to use for the mid-term vote, scheduled for November 2026, the same map as for the 2022 and 2024 elections.
“There is significant evidence that Texas drew the 2025 map on racial lines,” he concluded.
In reaction to the redistricting in Texas, the Democrats had a text approved in November by referendum intended to give them five additional seats in California, the most populous state in the country, which they largely dominate.
California Republicans, supported by the Department of Justice, are challenging this new division in court.
