Supreme Court rules for Texas Republicans, allowing new election map to go into effect

WASHINGTON— The Supreme Court ruled for Texas and GOP leaders on Thursday, clearing the way for the state to use a new electoral map that is expected to send five more Republicans to Congress in 2026.

The judges are set aside for now. District judges’ 2-1 decision who called the state’s map a racial gerrymander. Thursday’s vote was the usual 6-3, with conservative justices in the majority and three liberals dissenting.

The court’s five-paragraph decision said the district judges “failed to satisfy the legislature’s presumption of good faith by creating ambiguous direct and indirect evidence against the legislature.”

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. Concurring, he wrote: “The impetus for the adoption of the Texas map (like the map later adopted in California) was partisan advantage, pure and simple.”

Texas lawmakers have stated that they were acting for partisan purposes, not racist reasons.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote in dissent: “Today’s order disrespects the work of the District Court, which has done everything that could be asked to carry out its mandate – setting aside any consideration other than to properly address the matter.” “And today’s order disregards the millions of Texans who the District Court found were reassigned to new districts based on their race. I respectfully dissent, because this Court’s precedent and our Constitution require better.”

He was joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The decision bolsters Republicans’ efforts to retain control of the House of Representatives, marking a setback for Democrats and voting rights advocates.

This is consistent with the conservative majority’s view that determining electoral districts is a “political question” left to state lawmakers, not judges. But in the past, the court has also said that racist gerrymandering is unconstitutional under the 14th and 15th Amendments.

In response to Texas’ mid-decade redistricting, California Gov. Gavin Newsom won voter approval to redraw his state’s congressional districts to elect five more Democrats in 2026.

On November 21, lawyers for the state of Texas filed an emergency petition Appeal to the Supreme Court, We urge the justices to act quickly to block the lower court’s decision.

They argued that Texas’ new electoral map was drawn based on partisan advantage, not the race of voters. They said any further delay would disrupt the next elections as the deadline for candidates is December 8.

They cited the so-called “Purcell principle” as the reason for reversing the district court’s decision due to the approach of an upcoming election.

In Texas, the mid-decade lockdown emerged in July.

“Texas has also made a strong showing that irreparable harm exists and that equity and the public interest support it,” the Supreme Court ruling said. he said. “This Court has repeatedly emphasized that lower federal courts should not normally change election rules on the eve of an election. The District Court violated that rule here.”

Acting on President Trump’s orders, Texas Governor Greg Abbott called for a special session of the Legislature to reshuffle the 38 congressional voting districts to remove five Democrats from the House of Representatives.

He cited “constitutional concerns” raised by Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, as the reason.

He argued that the state has many unconstitutional “coalition districts” with “non-White” majorities of Black and Latino voters.

Voting rights advocates said Texas Republicans followed his lead and redrew districts near Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth to erase areas where Latino and Black voters are majorities.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown said the evidence showed Texas’ “Legislature reapportioned to achieve the Justice Department’s racial goal of eliminating coalition districts, not for a political purpose such as appeasing President Trump or gaining five Republican seats in the Republican U.S. House.”

If so, he said, the new map should be set aside and the state should use the 2021 map drawn by the GOP.