Supreme Court revives Texas GOP gerrymander

Texas lawmaker looks at new congressional map

The ruling was a 'major win for Republicans in Texas and nationally'

(Image credit: Eli Hartman / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

What happened

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Texas Republicans can use the congressional map they approved in August, at President Donald Trump’s urging. The court’s three liberal justices dissented. A divided three-judge panel in Texas last month threw out the new map, which could flip up to five Democratic-held seats, with a Trump appointee ruling it an impermissible racial gerrymander.

Who said what

The ruling was a “major win for Republicans in Texas and nationally,” boosting their odds of keeping their “narrow majority” in next year’s midterms, The Texas Tribune said. The lower court “improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing much confusion and upsetting the delicate federal-state balance in elections,” the Supreme Court said in its unsigned “shadow docket” ruling.

Justice Samuel Alito, writing separately in an opinion joined by two other conservatives, argued that it was “indisputable” Texas Republicans were seeking “partisan advantage pure and simple.” Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the court’s liberals, said the ruling “disrespects” the lower court’s diligent work and “ensures that many Texas citizens, for no good reason, will be placed in electoral districts because of their race. And that result, as this court has pronounced year in and year out, is a violation of the Constitution.”

What next?

Trump’s push for Texas Republicans to redraw their map mid-decade sparked a nationwide scramble that has led to GOP-boosting maps in Missouri and North Carolina and a Democratic gerrymander in California. Other states are considering joining the battle. The high court just gave “a green light for there to be even more re-redistricting, and a strong message to lower courts to butt out,” UCLA election law expert Richard Hasen said at his Election Law Blog.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.