What’s good for the goose is sweet for the gander. Or, extra to the purpose, what’s unhealthy for the goose may be very unhealthy for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s gerrymander.
Abbott and his fellow Republican lawmakers are most likely presently digesting this 160-page mic drop from america District Court docket in El Paso. Seems that Texas’ try and rig elections with a mid-decade redistricting turned out to be a racial gerrymander. Which, it seems, remains to be unlawful! Even for Texas! Who knew?
Tuesday’s ruling throws out the 2026 congressional maps that Texas Republicans pushed by way of to protect their slender majority within the Home of Representatives on the behest of President Donald Trump. Hey, if you happen to can’t win over voters together with your insurance policies, you’re going to need to go together with these kinds of shenanigans, designed to dilute or totally suppress the votes of people that are inclined to vote for Democrats, as a result of we will’t have that.
Protesters collect within the rotunda exterior the Home Chamber on the Texas Capitol as lawmakers debate a redrawn U.S. congressional map throughout a particular session on Aug. 20.
Since this can be a redistricting case, it’s a bit bizarre when it comes to how it’s dealt with. The place federal district courtroom circumstances are often presided over by a single decide, redistricting circumstances are heard within the decrease courtroom however with a panel of three judges. Any attraction goes on to the Supreme Court docket, which is the place this may inevitably find yourself. However for now, till the Supreme Court docket finds a option to say that what Texas did was fantastic—lol, who’re we kidding? They received’t discover a option to say it. They’ll simply put it on the shadow docket.
But it surely’s gonna depart a mark that the writer of this district courtroom choice is Decide Jeffrey Brown, who Trump appointed to the bench. Brown had beforehand served on the Texas Supreme Court docket after being appointed by then-Gov. Rick Perry. No wild-eyed racial justice warrior is he, however right here he goes exhausting—and Texas is so mad.
At root, what Brown held right here is that whereas Texas Republicans actually made clear they had been doing this for political causes—to profit the GOP by drawing a extra favorable map—ultimately, it was only a racial gerrymander, albeit for white folks. Brown is, uh, not delicate concerning the administration’s position on this both:
However when the Trump Administration reframed its request as a requirement to redistrict congressional seats primarily based on their racial make-up, Texas lawmakers instantly jumped on board.
There’s no love misplaced between Brown and the Division of Justice right here both. The company fake-threatened the state, saying the prevailing map had unconstitutional “coalition” districts. This gave Texas Republicans cowl to redistrict, waving the DOJ letter as proof that the prevailing maps needed to go.
However seems all of the suspect districts that the DOJ recognized had been majority non-white. So, the demand to redistrict these, whereas leaving intact and by no means mentioning majority-white Democratic districts, means we’ve received ourselves an excellent old school racial gerrymander demand.
Associated | Individuals hate gerrymandering. Texas Republicans don’t care.
And Texas delivered, with Brown noting that the brand new maps achieved all however one of many racial targets “demanded by the DOJ.”
Within the meantime, the DOJ intervened in a lawsuit by California Republicans over that state’s new maps, arguing that as a result of California Democrats mainly talked about Latino voters, it was a racial gerrymander. Gov. Gavin Newsom ran round the entire state stumping for this, saying it was explicitly a partisan gerrymandering designed to counter Texas.
So, to recap: The maps the DOJ pushed by way of in Texas are out whereas we wait to see what occurs in California.
Enjoyable reality! It doesn’t seem that Proposition 50 comprises any language saying that California will drop its new maps if Texas’ maps are now not allowed. In different phrases, if California survives its lawsuit, it will get to redistrict and preserve that electoral benefit.
Certainly, Trump’s entire redistricting scheme is likely to be falling aside. Indiana isn’t on board any longer regardless of a number of threats from the president.
There’s no means this doesn’t get to the Supreme Court docket ASAP, and let’s be trustworthy: The possibility that Chief Justice John Roberts and his merry band of hard-right jurists will discover a option to say Texas’ maps are fantastic and California’s usually are not is fairly excessive. They could even do it on the shadow docket with no clarification.
However for now, let’s level and snort on the DOJ and GOP henchman Abbott being livid that even Trump-appointed judges know that the regulation applies to them. We gotta take the wins the place we will.
