Originally published at: Supreme Court Conservatives Reinstate Texas’ Gerrymandered House Maps - TPM – Talking Points Memo
The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 order, has put on hold a lower court ruling that blocked Texas’ aggressive gerrymander, a maneuver the state legislature had carried out on orders from the Trump administration and the president himself, hoping to preserve Republicans’ majority in the U.S. House in 2026. In a brief order, the conservative…
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>In a brief order, the conservative majority argued, among other things, that the District Court had intervened to block the maps too close to next year’s midterm election.
I really disliked Scalia, but I always had to admit he was a fairly brilliant guy. These guys, on the other hand, are just dumb. Essentially they are setting precedent that as long as you gerrymander in fairly close proximity to the election, it is fine. This is just stupid and I feel like we are all stupider for having such a stupid court.
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They may regret this…the Republicans gerrymandered Texas based on the 2024 results, assuming that Latinos would continue to vote with them. If they instead face an angry population, Latino or not, there’s a good chance that they lose more seats than they gain. And it would serve them right for trying to cheat like this.
The corruption of the SC is pretty much complete at this point, if they were going to argue for the status quo it should have been for the 2024 map, not one shoved through by Republicans and then put in limbo by lawsuits. As is now usual with the Seditious Six Justices, they decided what they wanted and then wrote a decision pointed towards that instead of one consistent with the law and the principles of democracy. The Roberts court will go down as the most corrupt in our history, the breadth of their bad decisions is much bigger than any other court at this point.
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Both the Supreme Court and the House need to be expanded as soon as is practicable. Along with making DC & Puerto Rico states.
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The only way to save the Supreme Court is to expand it. Roberts and his court has proven to be one of the most corrupt of all time and the only immediate remedy without years of legal wrangling would be expanding the court to 13 members.
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Make it law that the number of justices should always match the number of circuit courts.
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Any 6-3 vote with the usual suspects on each side is about ideology not law. This is a disgrace to the profession and no one can convince that it is a legitimate line of work entitled to respect.
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One of the key issues at stake in the legal dispute is whether the gerrymander was partisan . . . or racial . . . Alito, in his concurrence, waved that aside, noting “that the impetus for the adoption map (like the map subsequently adopted in California) was partisan advantage pure and simple.”
When the California case reaches the Supreme Court, Alito will note “that the impetus for the adoption map was racial advantage pure and simple.” Strike one.
And it was approved by the voters, not by the independent state legislature. Strike two.
And it’s too close to the election, regardless of when the DoJ appeal gets there. Strike three.
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Degenerate political actors gonna degenerate.
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If they refuse to allow the CA map after pulling this, that’s going to damage them so tremendously that the call to reform the SC will be a clear election issue. There’s zero way that allowing the TX map but not the CA map makes any sense, legally or otherwise, and people will get that it’s cheating by the Republican justices. I think they are smart enough not to try to pull that, especially since it will be a decision that comes even closer to election season than this one, plus it’s likely the lower courts will uphold the CA map for good reasons.
We’ll see what happens when that case gets there…if the SC really does put its thumb on the scale that obviously then things are very much changed in our political conversation.
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In a brief order, the Court argued, among other things, that the District Court had intervened to block the maps too close to next year’s midterm election.
And
And the future of Indiana’s gerrymandered maps remains in limbo until the Senate convenes on December 8.
But that’s even closer to next year’s election than the District Court’s decision was. Shouldn’t Indiana’s possible redrawing of their maps be way too late, then?
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“Don’t mess with Texas” is what they say down in the Lone Star state but here we go again with Texas messing with the rest of us. If this rigging results in a GOP majority in 2026 licensing Trump’s worst inclinations we all should give Texas a bit of thought. And maybe mess with Texas. Their fucking Judges impose right wing / nut job religious rulings on all of America, their piece of shit Attorney General repeatedly authorizes Texas to sue the rest of America because it doesn’t do things the Texas way and most the “poison” killing kids across America right through the state.
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Hope you are right.
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Time runs differently for Republicans and Democrats. For Supreme Court nominees, a year is “too close” to the next election if you’re a Democratic president, but if you’re a Republican, there’s plenty of time even as voting takes place for that election.
Similarly, Republican redistricting on their own behalf basically can’t be overturned, because the election will always be “too close.” Even if it’s nowhere near the filing deadline for candidates.
But watch for it! Surely Democrat-favoring maps can be overturned even during early voting, when candidates for their new (now illegal) districts are on the ballot. It would be like kicking over an anthill, which the Seditious Six may all have done in their youth. Fun to watch the little guys panic and run around!
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Bring on the Blue Wave to end all Blue Waves. Be careful what you wish for, MAGA.
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It was the legislators (the elected government of CA) who put it in front of the voters, in a state with a long and powerful history of ballot initiatives. The Seditious Six will have to go a long way to portray that as a negative.
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Just balls ‘n strikes here, nuthin’ more, right?
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That’s what this decision is about. This gives them precedent to say that California’s and Virginia’s responses are “too close to the election,” because they will be closer than Texas’s, and to kill them.
Corrupt fuckers.
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As can also be seen that that new Republican who won in Tennessee two days ago was sworn in to the House today, where as Adelita Grijalva had to wait seven weeks.
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