Texas’s mid-decade redistricting effort was likely an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown wrote Tuesday on behalf himself and U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama.

“Without an injunction, the racial minorities the Plaintiff Groups represent will be forced to be represented in Congress based on likely unconstitutional racial classifications for at least two years,” Brown wrote of the challengers to the 2025 map.

As such, the two judges on the three-judge panel hearing the litigation over the effort granted the plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction request and ordered “that the 2026 congressional election in Texas shall proceed under the map that the Texas Legislature enacted in 2021.”

In redistricting litigation, cases are generally heard before a three-judge district court panel under 28 U.S.C. 2884. Such cases include two district court judges and one appeals court judge. Their rulings are appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.