December 4, 2025
Gerrymander away. Go ahead Texas.
That’s what the Supreme Court just ruled today. The justices said at least after their preliminary look at the case — Texas can absolutely use their brand new gerrymandered map that eliminated five Democratic districts in Texas and created five new Republican districts for the upcoming midterm election.
While this ruling is definitely a win for the Republicans in the state of Texas – it may foreshadow a loss for President Trump and the Republican party. Which I’m going to explain in a second… but first – you need to understand the Supreme Court looked at a case on an emergency basis called Abbott vs League of United Latin American Citizens. The state of Texas appealed to the Supreme Court asking the justices to take a second look at a ruling from a panel of federal judges in the Western District of Texas. Those judges ruled after a multiple days of hearings and seeing lots of evidence that legislators in the state of Texas had absolutely used race to gerrymander the new map that created these five new republican districts and ruled that Texas can *not* use that map for the midterms in 2026.
Now – it’s important to know that the Supreme Court says gerrymandering is absolutely legal. States can absolutely gerrymander congressional maps for purely political reasons. Meaning the political party in charge can draw new district lines to benefit their own party. But the constitution of the United States and several federal laws say you can’t gerrymander for racial reasons. Meaning you cannot gerrymander voters out of districts with the intent and goal of diluting the voting power of certain racial groups.
Well after taking a quick look at this case on their shadow docket the Supreme Court today said – no – Texas did not use race to gerrymander, that the lower court did not give the Texas state legislature the benefit of the doubt about their motivations for gerrymandering and most importantly – Texas *can* use the new republican friendly gerrymandered map during the midterms. The majority said the district court “improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing much confusion and upsetting the delicate federal-state balance in elections.” The court’s order did not include a vote count, which is typical for rulings on emergency cases but Justice Alito did write a concurring opinion which was joined by Justice Gorsuch and Justice Thomas. That’s going to become important in a second.
The order also includes a dissent written by Justice Kagan and joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson. In that dissent Kagan blasts this ruling saying that the lower court took a lot of time hearing the evidence and forming a very lengthy 160-page opinion. And she says the Supreme Court’s conservatives disrespected the lower court in Texas writing – “this court reverses that judgment based on its perusal, over a holiday weekend, of a cold paper record. We are a higher court than the district court, but we are not a better one when it comes to making such a fact-based decision.”
And not only did she say the Supreme Court’s conservatives disrespected the Texas federal court judges – but she also said they disrespected Texas voters. “today’s order disserves the millions of Texans whom the district court found were assigned to their new districts based on their race. Because this court’s precedents and our constitution demand better, I respectfully dissent.”
So bottom line – Texas can use their new gerrymandered map. But what I think may be equally important is just one line from Justice Alito that may be foreshadowing a loss for Trump and the GOP. We know that the president and the Republican party in California are suing over Prop 50. That was a ballot initiative that passed overwhelmingly by California voters back in November that allows the state of California to balance out the Texas gerrymandering by gerrymandering their own maps. California’s new map – eliminates five Republican districts and creates 5 new Democratic districts. Of course Republicans in California and President Trump sued California over this new map saying – just like in this Texas case – that the state of California used race as the basis of the redistricting. Well – in his concurring opinion – super conservative Justice Samuel Alito says what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. He writes – in support of Texas’s ability to gerrymander their map – “it is indisputable—that the impetus for the adoption of the Texas map (like the map subsequently adopted in California) was partisan advantage pure and simple.” And as I just explained — a partisan gerrymandering is completely legal. Which is a pretty strong statement from the conservative justice that what Texas is doing is legal – and what California is doing is legal.
Read the SCOTUS ruling here.
