The gerrymander wars are intensifying, and Texas is the bloodiest front. Yet as both parties scramble for congressional seats, the Supreme Court must referee based on higher principles than partisan interest.
The Court on Friday slapped an emergency stay on a lower court ruling that had struck down the map, which the Texas Legislature drew to give Republicans five additional seats in the House of Representatives. The Court once again split on ideological lines, with the six conservative justices in the majority and the three liberals in dissent.
Technically, the Supreme Court’s stay is a mere interim measure, pending full review down the road. Realistically, it all but guarantees that the new Texas map will be in force for the 2026 midterms.
The press is framing the court’s allowance of Texas’s maps as part of the same political game, but the legal merits tell a different story.
