Texas Border Business
Texas Border Business
A federal court has blocked Texas from using its newly approved congressional map for the 2026 election cycle, prompting Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa to praise the ruling and reiterate concerns he raised during this year’s special legislative session.
In a two-to-one decision issued November 18, 2025, Judge Jeffrey V. Brown of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled that the state could not implement the 2025 mid-decade congressional redistricting plan. “I applaud the Court’s decision to block the mid-decade redistricting plan that was approved during the special session earlier this year,” Hinojosa said in a statement. He added that he “strongly opposed this proposal because it was the intent of the Trump administration to silence the voices of our U.S. citizens based on the color of their skin—whether they are Black, Brown, or Asian.”
According to the statement, Hinojosa argued throughout the legislative process that four redrawn districts affected areas represented by Black and Hispanic members of Congress. “The congressional districts that were redrawn were all districts represented by Black and Hispanic members of Congress,” he said.
The court’s ruling referenced a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice to Texas officials that asserted four congressional districts were unconstitutional because they were “coalition districts.” Judge Brown, as summarized in Hinojosa’s statement, found that the DOJ’s conclusion was “legally incorrect.” Hinojosa noted that he raised the same point before the ruling, saying, “I repeatedly stated that the DOJ letter misrepresented and distorted the Fifth Circuit’s opinion in Petteway v. Galveston County in that the Fifth Circuit never declared minority coalition districts unconstitutional.”
Hinojosa framed the dispute as part of a broader political effort. “The goal of the Trump administration and the DOJ was clear: to wipe out four congressional districts that were represented by elected officials elected by their minority-majority voters,” he said. “That is targeted racial discrimination.”
The Senator emphasized that legal action was always the strongest option for opponents of the map. “As I argued during the special session, our best chance of defeating this discriminatory redistricting plan was through the courts,” he said.
While the Legislature approved House Bill 4 in August, the court’s ruling leaves in place the congressional district boundaries established in 2021. Hinojosa acknowledged that the case may reach the nation’s highest court, stating that “this ruling can and will likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.” Still, he urged continued efforts to protect voting rights, adding, “We must continue working together to support our democratic values.”
“For now,” he said, “the congressional district boundaries that were approved in 2021 remain in effect.”
Read the statement below:
