The Supreme Court’s upholding of how Texas Republicans redrew the state’s congressional map gives hope to California Democrats as they prepare to defend their map in court this month — and encourages other states to follow suit.
The High Court allowed Texas to use a congressional map, giving Republicans a better shot at five additional seats in the US House, upholding a district court’s ruling that the new boundaries were likely unconstitutional because they were drawn along race lines.
Texas Republicans argued that partisan gains, not race, drove their decisions. In a brief order issued Thursday, the Supreme Court majority wrote that the lower court “failed to observe the presumption of legislative good faith” in blocking the map. And in a concordance, conservative Justice Samuel Alito explicitly linked Texas redistricting to what Democrats did in California.
It was “indisputable,” Alito wrote, that “the impetus for the adoption of the Texas map (like the map later adopted in California) was purely partisan advantage.” He wrote for himself and two other conservatives, Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.
The court’s rulings could give states led by Democrats and Republicans the green light to try to carve out as many friendly seats on their side before next year’s term. It also undermines the U.S. Justice Department’s efforts to throw out California’s map, which produces as many as five new Democratic-friendly seats, legal experts said.
“It’s going to be an uphill battle for the California Department of Justice after this decision,” said Derek Muller, a University of Notre Dame law professor who specializes in election law. “The court went out of its way to mention California — a case not before them — to square it with Texas.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office and Justice Department officials sparred on social media after the Supreme Court action.
Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the high court’s decision, writing on X that it demonstrated that “federal courts have no right to interfere with a state’s decision to redraw legislative maps for partisan reasons.”
Newsom’s press office responded, “So you’re going to drop the lawsuit against us, okay Pam?”
“No way, Gavin – we will stop your DEI districts for 2026,” the official DOJ account countered.
A court hearing in the California case is set for Dec. 15.
Despite the online bravado, the California Department of Justice’s case “has a bunch of new obstacles in its way” after the Supreme Court’s action, said Justin Levitt, a Loyola Law School professor who has worked on election issues in Democratic administrations. “You can’t actually win a case through marketing. Courts don’t do TikTok.”
The debate over the Texas and California maps is part of a widening battle between the political parties to gain an advantage ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Republicans hold a paper-thin majority in the US House, and the president’s party typically loses ground in midterm elections.
To help protect the GOP majority, Texas redrew its maps at Trump’s behest in an effort to gain five more Republican-leaning seats. California responded by redrawing the map, which voters supported by a wide margin last month.
Other states have also adopted new maps — with new Republican-friendly districts now in place in North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri. (Opponents of the Missouri rollback are scheduled to submit petitions to state officials next week aimed at blocking the map and putting it up to voters. But months of political and legal wrangling still lie ahead.)
Indiana’s Republican-controlled House on Friday approved a map promoted by Trump that would give the party an advantage in all nine congressional districts, although its fate is uncertain in the state Senate. Democrats currently control two US House seats in Indiana, and Republicans hold seven.
National Democratic leaders continue to push for new maps in deep blue Illinois and Maryland. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries argued this week that incumbent Democrats like Rep. Henry Cuellar, recently pardoned by Trump, could still win re-election in Texas districts that were redrawn to favor Republicans.
The biggest gains for Democrats could come in Virginia, where the party will control the governor’s office and both chambers next year. Democrats currently hold six of the 11 seats in the US House. Virginia House Speaker Don Scott recently argued that a map that gives Democrats an advantage in 10 of 11 districts is “not out of the realm of possibility.”
Louise Lucas, a Virginia Senate pro, responded to Thursday’s ruling to clean up the Texas map with two posts on her X account.
“I have something waiting for Texas…” she wrote, followed by: “I’ll be following every person I see on Twitter 10-1 tonight.”
Marina Jenkins, executive director of the Democratic National Redistricting Committee, said the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Texas map shows her party cannot rely on the court to stop redistricting efforts targeting Democrats.
“It’s clear that nobody else is coming to save us,” Jenkins said. “No cavalry is coming. If we want to fight for our democracy, we have to do it ourselves.
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