Hansi Lo Wang

It said that the court's majority decision to allow Texas to use this map for next year's midterms, quote, ensures that many Texas citizens for no good reason will be placed in electoral districts because of their race, and that violates the Constitution.

There's a lot going on, but let's start with California.

Voters in that state approved a Democratic-friendly congressional map last month to counter the Texas map that President Trump pushed for to help Republicans, and the Supreme Court is now allowing.

And this month, a federal court is holding a hearing on whether to block California's map for the midterms.

Last week, a different federal court ruled to allow North Carolina to use a new Republican-friendly map.

Missouri's Republican-friendly map is still facing lawsuits and a referendum effort.

And I'm keeping watch for potential new maps coming out of Florida, Indiana, New York, and Virginia.

No, there's a major voting rights case I'm also watching about Louisiana's congressional map.

The Supreme Court may rule on that very soon.

And depending on what and when the court decides in that case, there may be another wave of congressional gerrymandering, particularly in southern states.

You're welcome, Steve.

A final decision from the Supreme Court may come as soon as Monday.

If the court allows Texas to use the contested map for the midterm election, Republicans may be able to pick up five more seats in the U.S.

House.

A lower court had blocked that map after finding its challengers are likely to prove in a trial that the map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

That's because multiple top Republican officials made public statements suggesting they passed it to eliminate existing districts where Black and Latino voters together make up the majority.

But Texas tells the Supreme Court the lawmakers were not motivated by race and were focused on drawing new districts that are more likely to elect Republicans.

Time is running out to finalize Texas' map for the midterms.

The state's candidate filing deadline is about two weeks away.

Hansi Lewong, NPR News.