WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court took action on Friday to temporarily halt a lower court’s decision that deemed Texas’ 2026 congressional redistricting plan, supported by former President Donald Trump, likely to be racially discriminatory.

Justice Samuel Alito signed an order that will suspend the lower court’s ruling for a few days. This pause allows the Supreme Court time to decide whether the Republican-favored map should be used in the upcoming midterm elections.

In the past, the court’s conservative majority has blocked similar lower court decisions, citing their proximity to election dates as a reason for intervention.

The order was issued shortly after Texas requested the Supreme Court’s involvement to prevent confusion as the March congressional primaries near. The justices have previously intervened in redistricting cases, including those in Alabama and Louisiana, when elections were only months away.

Justice Alito signed the order as he is responsible for handling emergency appeals originating from Texas.

Texas redrew its congressional map in the summer as part of Trump’s efforts to preserve a slim Republican majority in the House in next year’s elections, touching off a nationwide redistricting battle. The new redistricting map was engineered to give Republicans five additional House seats, but a panel of federal judges in El Paso ruled 2-1 Tuesday that the civil rights groups that challenged the map on behalf of Black and Hispanic voters were likely to win their case.

If that ruling eventually holds, Texas could be forced to hold elections next year using the map drawn by the GOP-controlled Legislature in 2021 based on the 2020 census.

Texas was the first state to meet Trump’s demands in what has become an expanding national battle over redistricting. Republicans drew the state’s new map to give the GOP five additional seats, and Missouri and North Carolina followed with new maps adding an additional Republican seat each. To counter those moves, California voters approved a ballot initiative to give Democrats an additional five seats there.

The redrawn maps are facing court challenges in California, Missouri and North Carolina.

The Supreme Court is separately considering a case from Louisiana which could further limit race-based districts under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. It’s not entirely clear how the current round of redistricting would be affected by the outcome in the Louisiana case.