With the Texas candidate filing period It is set to close Next week, a majority of the justices on Thursday blocked an earlier decision by two of the three U.S. District Court judges who ruled against the state map. The decision means that, at least for now, the state can move forward with the new map, which could ultimately give Republicans five additional seats, in the March primary.
“Texas is likely to succeed on its claim that the district court made at least two serious errors,” the Supreme Court majority wrote. “First, the district court failed to respect the presumption of legislative good faith by construing the ambiguous direct and circumstantial evidence against the Legislature.”
“Second, the district court failed to make an affirmative or quasi-affirmative negative finding against respondents even though they did not produce a viable alternative map that met the state’s stated partisan goals,” the majority continued. “The district court improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing too much confusion and upsetting the delicate balance between federal and state jurisdictions in the election.”
The court’s three liberals — Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — dissented. In contrast to the three-month process that initially led to the map being overturned and the majority moving to overturn “this ruling based on a view of a cold paper record, over the weekend,” Kagan wrote to the trio, “we are a higher court than the district court, but we are no better when it comes to making such a fact-based decision.”
“Today’s order disrespects the work of a district court that has done everything one could ask to carry out its mission — and which has set aside all considerations except the proper presentation of the case,” Kagan asserted. “Today’s order does no harm to the millions of Texans who the district court found were assigned to their new districts based on their race.”
“This court’s stay ensures that the new Texas map, with all its enhanced partisanship, will govern next year’s House elections. This court’s stay ensures that many Texans will, for no good reason, be placed in electoral districts because of their race,” she warned. “This finding, as this court has declared year after year, is a violation of the Constitution.”
Leading Democrats in the state and the country quickly condemned the court’s majority. Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin called it “wrong — both morally and legally,” and said, “The Supreme Court has once again given Trump exactly what he wants: a rigged map to help Republicans avoid accountability in the midterms for turning their backs on the American people.”
“But it will backfire,” Martin predicted. “Texas Democrats have fought back every step of the way against illegal and rigged congressional maps and ignited a national movement. Democrats are fighting back, and are responding in kind even on the playing field across the country. Republicans are about to learn a valuable lesson: Don’t mess with Texas voters.”
Texas House Minority Leader Gene Wu (D-137) declared, “The Supreme Court failed Texas voters today, and they failed American democracy. This is what the end of the Voting Rights Act looks like: courts that will not protect minority communities even when the evidence stares them in the face.”
“I’m outraged by this ruling. Every Texan who testified against these maps should be outraged. Every community that has struggled for generations to build political power and watched Republicans try to manipulate it should be outraged. But outrage without action is just noise, and Democrats are taking action to respond,” he continued, pointing to California’s passage of Proposition 50 and regulation in other states, including Illinois, New York and Virginia. “A national movement is being built that says if Republicans want to play this game, Democrats will play it better.”
“The right-wing majority on the Supreme Court just gave Republicans five new seats in Congress, marking an automatic endorsement of Texas Republicans’ MAGA power grab,” Christina Harvey, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Stand Up America, said in a statement. “Make no mistake: This is not about fair representation of Texans. This is about marginalizing voters of color and helping Trump and Republican politicians avoid accountability for their unpopular agenda.”
She stressed that “in America, voters have the right to choose their representatives, not the other way around.” “But this captured court undermines this basic democratic principle at every turn. We deserve a Supreme Court that protects voting freedom and promotes democracy rather than enabling partisan politics. It is time for Democrats in Congress to get serious about plans to reform the Supreme Court once Trump leaves office, including term limits, an enforceable ethics code, and expanding the court.”
diverse Journalists And political Monitors It also suggested that despite Thursday’s decision in favor of politically motivated mid-decade redistricting, the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court may ultimately rule against California’s map — which, if allowed to stand, could undo the effect of Texas gerrymandering by erasing five potentially Republican districts.
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