The new U.S. House district map in Texas will be the subject of a federal court hearing this week, just one month after Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law.The
Armstrong Williams takes on the news of the week and asks the questions you want answered. Don’t miss our weekly town hall.AUSTIN, TEXAS - AUGUST 22: Texas Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, looks at the proposed redistricting map as the Texas Senate prepares to take a vote on the redistricting bill passed by the Texas House of Representatives, Aug.
22, 2025. The new U.S. House district map in Texas will be the subject of a federal court hearing this week, just one month after Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law. The National Redistricting Foundation hosted a press briefing on Monday in which it laid out the case it will be making to a panel of three federal judges this week. The NRF will ask the court to consider a preliminary injunction to block the implementation of the new map. "Immediate intervention from the court is necessary, because irreparable harm will be done to the rights of Black and Latino Texans if they are forced to vote on a map that is likely an unconstitutional gerrymander," said Marina Jenkins, executive director of the NRF. The redistricted map, known as House Bill 4 during the second special session of the Texas Legislature, could give Republicans as many as five more seats in Congress. Opponents of the map have argued that it is based on racial gerrymandering. The item was added to the special session agenda followingfrom the U.S. Department of Justice sent to Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in early summer. It is alleged that the map drawn in 2021 violates the Voting Rights Act by permitting "coalition districts" consisting of minority groups. "Let's be clear. There was no new Census data, no court ruling, and no sound legal reasoning that required Texas to redraw its map," Jenkins said. The NRF claims the new map dilutes the votes of minorities in Texas, gerrymanders along racial lines, and uses outdated population data. "The map ensures fairer representation in Congress," Abbott said. "Texas will now be more red in the United States Congress."If the court issues a preliminary injunction, political science and law experts believe a likely option will be to keep the 2021 congressional map in place for the 2026 midterm races. "Voters need to know who is running and who represents them, and what their district looks like. And right now, that's up in the air," said Pat Flavin, political science professor at Baylor University. David Froomkin, assistant professor at the University of Houston Law Center, believes the case may not be as complicated as some other redistricting cases. "While it's often challenging to say whether legislators had a particular goal in mind, here's there's more definitive evidence that at least at one stage, they acknowledged that goal," Froomkin said of the racial motivations behind the mid-decade redistricting process. "The federal constitution, as interpreted by the US Supreme Court, bars states from intentionally gerrymandering with racial objectives in mind."
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