Supreme Court Allows Texas To Use Racially Gerrymandered Map

Supply: Brandon Bell / Getty

In information that may be filed beneath “disappointing, however not shocking,” the Supreme Courtroom issued a 6-3 ruling permitting Texas to make use of its just lately redistricted map within the 2026 midterms.

Based on CBS Information, the ruling got here after a panel of federal judges struck down the map final month. Within the authentic ruling, the judges discovered the map unconstitutional, believing it was racially gerrymandered. In an unsigned order, the Supreme Courtroom stated it “has repeatedly emphasised that decrease federal courts ought to ordinarily not alter the election guidelines on the eve of an election,” and the district court docket “violated that rule right here.”

“The District Courtroom improperly inserted itself into an lively main marketing campaign, inflicting a lot confusion and upsetting the fragile federal-state steadiness in elections,” the order continued.

So the Supreme Courtroom’s logic boils all the way down to “it doesn’t matter if it’s incorrect, they already did it, so simply settle for it.”

Supreme Courtroom Justice Elena Kagan pushed again towards the ruling in a written dissent. “The court docket issued a 160-page opinion recounting intimately its factual findings. But this Courtroom reverses that judgment based mostly on its perusal, over a vacation weekend, of a chilly paper file.” Kagan wrote. “We’re a better court docket than the District Courtroom, however we aren’t a greater one on the subject of making such a fact-based choice,” she added.

“We received! Texas is formally—and legally—extra purple,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stated in a press release celebrating the ruling. “The brand new congressional districts higher align our illustration in Washington D.C. with the values of our state,” Abbott added. “This can be a victory for Texas voters, for widespread sense, and for the U.S. Structure.”

I dislike this man a lot that I used to be briefly involved it made me an ableist, till realizing it simply makes me an equal-opportunity hater. What’s extra progressive than that?

Texas Democrats had been far much less celebratory of the ruling, and for good motive. Over the summer time, Texas Democrats used each measure at their disposal to dam the Texas redistricting effort. They filibustered, fled the state to interrupt quorum, and their efforts even resulted in state Rep. Nicole Collier being held as a political prisoner on the Home flooring.

“The Supreme Courtroom failed Texas voters right now, they usually failed American democracy. That is what the top of the Voting Rights Act appears to be like like: courts that received’t defend minority communities even when the proof is staring them within the face,” Texas state Home Democratic Chief Rep. Gene Wu stated in a press release.

The Texas map triggered a nationwide redistricting battle. In July, Abbott referred to as a particular session centered on redistricting on the request of President Donald Trump. The GOP controls the Home by a slim margin, with Democrats solely needing a internet achieve of three seats to flip management throughout subsequent yr’s midterms. The Texas state legislature finally handed a map that added 5 new districts that favor Republicans.

Whereas the Supreme Courtroom is permitting Texas to make the most of its redistricted map, the positive aspects made inside it have largely been neutralized by California’s redistricting effort. California Gov. Gavin Newsom was the primary Democratic chief to throw a counterpunch when he introduced the “Election Rigging Response Act” in August. That transfer triggered a particular election final month centered solely on Prop 50, which transfers management of the state’s congressional maps from an impartial redistricting committee to the state legislature by the top of the last decade. California voters overwhelmingly authorised the measure, and Newsom intends to implement a map that straight cancels out the positive aspects made in Texas.

Virginia’s Democrat-led Basic Meeting additionally introduced a shock redistricting effort final month that goals to create two to a few extra seats within the Home, with Chicago and Maryland additionally contemplating redrawing their maps.

So whereas the Supreme Courtroom’s ruling undeniably sucks for Democratic voters in Texas, the electoral math for flipping management of the Home remains to be fairly shut.