In what can only be thought of as poetic justice, a panel of federal judges has blocked (2-1) Texas from using its new Congressional map deliberately designed to disenfranchise Democratic voters. “The ruling comes 10 days into the monthlong period when candidates can sign up for the March primary.”
Why poetic justice? Because the arbitrary action of the Texas legislature and governor led California Governor Gavin Newsome to ask Californians if they wanted to redraw their Congressional map in response to the Texas action. California voters approved the plan.
Texas Republicans, on the other hand, “said repeatedly during the Legislature’s debates this summer, and after, that they were redrawing districts solely to help Republicans win more seats.”
“The new map decreased from 16 to 14 the number of congressional districts where minorities comprise a majority of voting-age citizens… Five of six Democratic lawmakers drawn into districts with other incumbents are Black or Hispanic.”
President Trump’s Department of Justice has sued California but not Texas. Why? As AP notes: “Texas this summer was the first state to meet Trump’s demands in what has become an expanding national battle over redistricting.”
“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” U.S. Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee, wrote in the ruling striking down the new lines. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.”
Brown ordered that the 2026 congressional election “shall proceed under the map that the Texas Legislature enacted in 2021.” The case will likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but time is short: Candidates only have until Dec. 8 to file for the upcoming election.
The case was heard by:
- Senior U.S. District Judge David C. Guaderrama, an Obama appointee;
- U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry E. Smith, a Reagan appointee (the dissent); and
- U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown, a Trump appointee.
As The Texas Tribune pointed out, the 2021 map isn’t set in stone, either:
A lawsuit over the state’s 2021 redistricting — including its state legislative and education board seats — went to trial earlier this summer and remains pending before the same three-judge panel. The judges have indicated they may want to see how the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a major voting rights case before issuing their full ruling on Texas’ maps.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com