(AFP) – The US Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use redrawn congressional districts for the 2026 midterm elections, boosting the hopes of President Donald Trump’s Republicans to retain control of the House of Representatives. The push by Texas, which carves out five more Republican-friendly districts and came at the behest of Trump, launched a series of similar efforts in states around the country. The decision by the conservative-dominated high court stayed a lower ruling which had said the redrawn maps “unconstitutionally” sort voters based on race.
“Texas needs certainty on which map will govern the 2026 midterm elections, so I will not delay the Court’s order,” Justice Samuel Alito, one of six conservatives on the bench, wrote in his concurring opinion. The three liberal justices all dissented with the order, which was unsigned. “The District Court conducted a nine-day hearing… And after considering all the evidence, it held that the answer was clear. Texas largely divided its citizens along racial lines to create its new pro-Republican House map,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent.
While the ruling is technically only a temporary halt to the lower court ruling, with a candidate filing deadline next week in Texas, it effectively ensures that the Republican-favored map will be in effect for the 2026 midterms.
– ‘We won!’ –
US electoral districts are traditionally drawn following the national census, taken once per decade to reflect the changing population. The next census is not scheduled until 2030, but Republican-ruled Texas, under pressure from Trump, decided to redraw its congressional maps mid-decade to yield more Republican districts. Texas Governor Greg Abbott celebrated the decision. “We won! Texas is officially — and legally — more red,” he wrote on X.
Democrats voiced disappointment with the ruling. “The right-wing Supreme Court majority has once again shredded its credibility by rubber-stamping a racially gerrymandered map in Texas,” US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement. “Republicans know the extremists can only win by cheating. The people of California and beyond will prevent that from happening.”
The US Supreme Court has previously permitted so-called partisan gerrymandering, but the situation becomes more complicated when a person’s race is involved due to civil rights legislation. Democratic-run California has also approved a new electoral map that would also create five districts more likely to vote for the left-leaning party. But those maps have also been challenged in court by the Republican Party of California, in a lawsuit that has received the backing of the Trump administration and which claims race was also unlawfully used.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi, whose Justice Department filed a brief supporting the new Texas maps, hailed Thursday’s ruling. “Federal courts have no right to interfere with a State’s decision to redraw legislative maps for partisan reasons,” Bondi said in a statement on X. Republicans in North Carolina have also redrawn that state’s map, while efforts are underway in Indiana, Missouri, and elsewhere.
© 2024 AFP
