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The order signed by Justice Samuel Alito will remain in place at
least for the next few days while the court considers whether to
allow the new map favorable to Republicans to be used in the
midterm elections.
The court’s conservative majority has blocked similar lower
court rulings because they have come too close to elections.
The order came about an hour after the state called on the high
court to intervene to avoid confusion as congressional primary
elections approach in March. The justices have blocked past
lower-court rulings in congressional redistricting cases, most
recently in Alabama and Louisiana, that came several months
before elections.
The order was signed by Alito because he is the justice who
handles emergency appeals from Texas.
Texas redrew its congressional map in the summer as part of
Trump’s efforts to preserve a slim Republican majority in the
House in next year's elections, touching off a nationwide
redistricting battle. The new redistricting map was engineered
to give Republicans five additional House seats, but a panel of
federal judges in El Paso ruled 2-1 Tuesday that the civil
rights groups that challenged the map on behalf of Black and
Hispanic voters were likely to win their case.
If that ruling eventually holds, Texas could be forced to hold
elections next year using the map drawn by the GOP-controlled
Legislature in 2021 based on the 2020 census.
Texas was the first state to meet Trump’s demands in what has
become an expanding national battle over redistricting.
Republicans drew the state’s new map to give the GOP five
additional seats, and Missouri and North Carolina followed with
new maps adding an additional Republican seat each. To counter
those moves, California voters approved a ballot initiative to
give Democrats an additional five seats there.
The redrawn maps are facing court challenges in California,
Missouri and North Carolina.
The Supreme Court is separately considering a case from
Louisiana which could further limit race-based districts under
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. It's not entirely clear how
the current round of redistricting would be affected by the
outcome in the Louisiana case.
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