A federal judicial panel will hear arguments beginning Oct. 1 for an injunction against the implementation of new congressional boundaries approved by the Texas Legislature.
According to three lawyers who were in the El Paso courtroom Wednesday when judges made the decision, the hearing on the congressional boundaries will take place from Oct. 1-10 in El Paso. That would allow enough time for the three-judge panel to make a decision on whether the maps are legal or violate the federal Voting Rights Act before the December filing deadline for the 2026 elections.
“They came up with the best time under the circumstances,” said Gary Bledsoe, the president of the Texas NAACP and one of the group’s lawyers. Bledsoe is also a lawyer for U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas.
“We think this is a case where the racial bias is just overt,” Bledsoe said before getting on a flight back to Austin.
A 67-page complaint, filed hours after the map was approved by the Legislature, argues that the redistricting plan is discriminatory.
State Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Prosper and chairman of the House Elections Committee, said 2026 candidates would likely run under the new boundaries.
“I have a high level of confidence that after further review the maps passed by the Texas Legislature will stand,” Shaheen said.
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Bledsoe said Trump’s request that Texas embark on mid-decade redistricting will be the center of the plaintiff’s case.
“Trump’s letter will be exhibit No. 1,” he said.
See here, here, and here for the background. The plaintiffs have gotten most of what they wanted at this stage, which is the expedited hearing that will give them the chance to stop the new map from being used in the 2026 election. No word at this time on their request to get a final ruling on the original lawsuit. This was the easy part, one in which the defendants were more or less in agreement. Actually getting the map blocked is a much bigger lift, one that would need to withstand the appeals process as well. I’m not sure how sturdy the strategy of hinging the case on “mid-decade redistricting” is, but they’re the experts. What I know for sure is that the October trial will be a marquee event. Michael Li has a copy of the court’s order, and the Lone Star Project has more.
It would be informative to know the perspectives of our Harris County elected officials, Annette Ramirez and Teneshia Hudspeth, who are tasked with implementing the new plan.