Trump-Nominated Judge Jeffrey Brown Blocks Texas Congressional Map in High-Stakes Voting-Rights Ruling

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump nominee, temporarily blocked Texas’ newly drawn congressional map this week, finding the plan to be a racial gerrymander that would likely dilute the voting power of minority communities. The injunction, issued jointly with U.S. District Judge David C. Guaderrama (an Obama appointee), prevents a map that had been projected to produce five additional GOP-leaning districts from taking effect while the case proceeds. Texas has appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Why the ruling matters

Republicans had counted on the map to help protect a narrow House majority heading into the 2026 midterms. Brown’s order raises immediate stakes for national control of the U.S. House, because it pauses the map before it can be used in upcoming redistricting cycles and elections.

Brown’s recent voting-rights record

Brown previously drew national attention in the summer of 2023 when, after hearing a challenge to Galveston County’s precinct plan, he concluded the plan was “fundamentally inconsistent” with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because it diluted Black and Latino voting strength. That decision was later reversed by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit; the Galveston matter was revived and remains pending before Brown.

Career and background

Brown, 55, is a lifelong Texan who earned his law degree from the University of Houston Law Center in 1995. Early in his career he clerked for then-Gov. Greg Abbott and for Texas Supreme Court Justice Jack Hightower. He worked in private practice at Baker Botts before entering the judiciary: Gov. Rick Perry appointed him to a state trial court in 2001, then to the 14th Court of Appeals in 2007 and to the Texas Supreme Court in 2013. In 2019 President Donald Trump nominated Brown to the federal bench; the Senate confirmed him by a 50–40 vote.

Controversies and precedent

During his confirmation process, Democrats questioned prior public statements in which Brown expressed opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage and so-called "activist judges." Brown told the Senate committee that many of those comments were made during judicial campaigns and pledged to follow binding Supreme Court precedent.

Brown’s record includes other high-profile rulings. In 2022 he temporarily blocked a Biden administration policy requiring federal employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19; that injunction was later overturned and then reinstated in part by the 5th Circuit.

"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." — Chief Justice John Roberts, quoted in Judge Brown's opinion

Reaction from the appeals court

The ruling prompted a fierce dissent from 5th Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, a Ronald Reagan appointee, who accused Brown of exercising judicial activism and criticized the decision sharply. Smith wrote that the ruling favored progressive interests and lamented what he called an overreach by a district judge.

"The main winners from Judge Brown’s opinion are George Soros and Gavin Newsom. The obvious losers are the People of Texas and the Rule of Law," Judge Jerry Smith wrote in his dissent.

Brown has in the past criticized judges who he said substituted their policy preferences for the law; during his 2019 confirmation hearing he said, "Judicial activism is when a judge puts his or her own policy preferences ahead of what the law plainly is. And I don't think that judicial activism is ever appropriate."

With the case now headed to the Supreme Court, the dispute over Texas’ map will be a bellwether for how courts balance racial-protection principles under the Voting Rights Act against state redistricting authority — and it could directly affect how competitive the 2026 House races become.