Texas' Redrawn Map Faces Legal Hurdles

A recent court decision has put a halt to Texas' new congressional map, which was designed by Republicans to strengthen their hold on the House of Representatives. The ruling, made by a panel of federal judges, including Judge Jeffrey Brown, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, has ordered Texas to use the previous map from 2021 instead. The court found that the new map was drawn with racial gerrymandering in mind, a practice that involves manipulating electoral boundaries to favor one racial group over another. The decision is a significant setback for Trump, who had encouraged Texas Republicans to create a map that could potentially give the party up to five additional seats. The court's ruling also highlights the ongoing battle over redistricting across the country, with several states facing legal challenges to their new maps. The court's opinion focused on a letter from the Department of Justice, which had urged Texas to redraw its maps and threatened legal action if the state did not dismantle so-called "coalition districts. " These districts are majority nonwhite and are drawn to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The court ruled that the Justice Department's assertion that these districts were unconstitutional was legally incorrect. As a result, the decision by Texas to redraw its map in response to the letter means that the Governor explicitly directed the Legislature to redistrict based on race, making it likely that the plaintiffs could prove that Texas racially gerrymandered the latest map. The court's decision also cited past Supreme Court precedent, such as Purcell v. Gonzalez, which states that election rules should not be overturned too close to an election. The court wrote that the injunction would not cause significant disruption, though any disruption that does occur should be blamed on the legislature. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who signed the map into law this summer, has vowed to appeal the decision to the United States Supreme Court. Abbott argued that the lines were drawn to better reflect Texans' conservative voting preferences and that any claim that the maps are discriminatory is absurd and unsupported by the testimony offered during ten days of hearings. The ruling comes in the middle of the filing period for candidates to declare for the March 3 primary, which means that the 2026 election could move forward under the old lines, dramatically shifting the political calculus in the state. For example, the Republicans' map redrew two districts in the Austin area currently represented by Democratic Reps. Greg Casar, a young progressive, and Lloyd Doggett, a more moderate lawmaker who's served in public office for about a half-century. While Doggett announced he would retire instead of run in a primary against Casar for the one Democratic seat left in Austin under the new lines, he noted in the statement his decision would hinge on how the court ruled. The court's decision would also be a boon for the winner of the Houston-area special election to replace the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, which will be decided during a January runoff. The winner would likely have had to face longtime Democratic Rep. Al Green if the new lines are in effect, but they'd have a smoother path to re-election if not.