Mark Joseph Stern - The court ruled that Texas violated the 14th and 15th Amendments when drawing its gerrymander

Here is the federal district court's 2–1 ruling, authored by a very conservative Trump appointee, striking down Texas' new Republican gerrymander on the grounds that it unlawfully discriminates against racial minorities. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) 2025-11-18T18:43:36.856Z

Note: The court ruled that Texas violated the 14th and 15th Amendments by discriminating on the basis of race when drawing its new Republican gerrymander. So this opinion will not be fatally undermined by the Supreme Court's impending blow to the Voting Rights Act; it has an independent rationale.

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) 2025-11-18T18:47:36.488Z

This opinion makes it very clear that Trump's Justice Department screwed up badly here. Texas could've just drawn a partisan gerrymander and gotten away with it. Instead, the Justice Department (unnecessarily) injected race into it, directing Texas to draw an unconstitutional *racial* gerrymander.

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) 2025-11-18T18:52:31.541Z