A federal judicial panel has dealt a significant blow to the State of Texas Republican-led redistricting effort, blocking a newly drawn congressional map that aimed to net the party five additional U.S. House seats ahead of the 2026 mid-terms.
The 2-1 ruling found the map likely constituted racial gerrymandering in violation of the U.S. Constitution and federal voting-rights protections.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has appealed the decision, and it could be overturned as it heads to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The decision orders that the state revert to using the previous 2021 map unless the Legislature revises the plan in a manner consistent with the ruling.
The legal setback arrives amid what has become one of the most consequential political dramas of 2025 — a cycle of mid-decade redistricting battles across the nation. In Texas, the map fight followed a dramatic quorum-busting walkout by Democratic lawmakers in the Texas House of Representatives, who fled the state to stall the session called by the Greg Abbott administration to redraw districts.
Meanwhile, in the State of California, Democrats responded with their own aggressive redistricting maneuver: voters in November approved Proposition 50, a constitutional amendment designed to redraw U.S. House maps in response to Texas’s plans.
At stake is much more than individual district lines. For Republicans in Texas, the map was central to efforts by Donald Trump and GOP leaders to protect a narrow national House majority.
Civil-rights organizations argued the map diluted the political power of Black and Hispanic voters by eliminating key minority-coalition districts — a claim the court found persuasive. On the flip side, Democratic-led states like California are signaling they will not sit quietly while GOP-controlled states attempt similar mid-cycle redraws.
Guest:
Trey Martinez Fischer is a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives, representing District 116, which covers parts of San Antonio's Northwest side. He was one of the leaders of the quorum busting walkout by House Democrats.
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This episode will be recorded on Wednesday, November 20, 2025, at 12:30 p.m.
