I Guess the Supreme Court Is Totally Cool with Racial Gerrymandering in Texas

"Late Thursday, this carny midway claimed another sucker. From The New York Times: The Supreme Court cleared the way on Thursday for Texas lawmakers to use newly redrawn congressional maps favoring Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections. The decision overturns, at least for now, a lower-court ruling that the new maps were likely an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. That decision had blocked lawmakers from using the maps in the midterm elections."

"The ruling also adds to the growing list of successes for the Trump administration before the justices, particularly on their emergency docket of cases heard without oral arguments, where the court's orders are intended to be merely interim. Critics refer to it as the shadow docket and note the temporary decisions can have broad consequences. You think? This particular dark beast from the shadow docketAbbott v. League of United Latin American Citizensis the pure product of legislative ratfcking from within the Texas state house."

"The Republicans therein called an unprecedented midterm reapportionment, and lo and behold, they produced a map that is likely to produce five new GOP congress critters. They did this by eliminating or redrawing districts represented by minority members. Here we get into the game of Mother, May I? that the Supreme Court initiated in 2019, when Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that partisan gerrymandering was beyond remedy in the federal courts."

The Supreme Court cleared the way for Texas to use newly redrawn congressional maps favoring Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections, overturning a lower-court finding that the maps were likely an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The decision was issued via the court's emergency or shadow docket, which issues interim orders without oral argument. The maps resulted from an unprecedented midterm reapportionment in the Texas statehouse and are likely to produce five additional Republican representatives by eliminating or redrawing districts held by minority members. The outcome follows a 2019 Roberts-era ruling that limited federal court remedies for partisan gerrymandering.

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