Supreme Court temporarily pauses lower court order that tossed Texas voting maps

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday temporarily paused a lower court ruling that blocked a new voting map in Texas, allowing the state to proceed for now with a plan aimed at adding more Republicans to the House of Representatives.



Texas officials had asked the U.S. Supreme Court in a filing earlier on Friday to revive the map, which was designed to help President Donald Trump's party keep control of Congress in next year's midterm elections.



The lower court's ruling had blocked the map, which was approved in August by the Texas legislature with Trump's support and redrew the boundaries of several electoral districts.



Alito, a member of the Supreme Court's conservative majority, issued the order as the justice designated to handle emergency matters arising from the states of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.



Alito's order freezing the lower court's action gives the justices more time to consider Texas' emergency request.



The lower court had concluded that the map likely was racially discriminatory in violation of U.S. constitutional protections.