A MART脥NEZ, HOST:
A federal court in Texas dealt a blow to President Trump's effort to reshape the midterm elections in favor of Republicans. A three-judge panel on Tuesday blocked the redistricting that Texas Republicans passed this summer. They were aiming to improve the GOP's chances of winning five more seats in the U.S. House, where Republicans have just a narrow majority. We're going to talk more about this. We're joined by Houston Public Media's Andrew Schneider. So, Andrew, Republicans in Texas said they were drawing new maps to get a political advantage in next year's election. What did the court have to say about that?
ANDREW SCHNEIDER, BYLINE: Well, the court didn't buy the Republicans' arguments that they were only engaging in partisan gerrymandering, which would have been legal. They call it racial gerrymandering. Judges noted that Governor Greg Abbott and state lawmakers didn't start the redistricting process until Abbott received a letter from the Trump administration framing Trump's request to redistrict, quote, "as a demand to redistrict congressional seats based on their racial makeup." The judges said that the plaintiffs, which included several civil rights groups were likely to prove at trial that Texas had racially gerrymandered the 2025 map, which is illegal. So they issued an injunction against its use in the 2026 midterms. Texas Republican leaders have already appealed a ruling directly to the US Supreme Court, so we haven't heard the final word.
MART脥NEZ: Yeah. President Trump called for the redistricting there, and his Justice Department wrote that letter. It seemed to backfire, though.
SCHNEIDER: Exactly. The judges said the DOJ got the case law on which it called for the districts to be redrawn completely wrong. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown wrote the opinion yesterday. He was appointed by President Trump back in his first term. He zeroed in on the letter from the Justice Department that set the redistricting in motion, even how it was written. He said there were typos and legal mistakes in it. He said even attorneys employed by the Texas attorney general described the letter as legally unsound, baseless, erroneous, ham-fisted and a mess.
MART脥NEZ: And there's been a lot of reaction from both sides. Can you give us a sample of that?
SCHNEIDER: Yeah. Democrats are saying they're elated. I talked to Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher, who represents a Houston district that was largely left intact by the redistricting, but she said the plan hurt voters in every district in Texas.
LIZZIE FLETCHER: Every Texan should be supporting this decision to make sure that Texans, every single one of us, has the opportunity to have our voices heard and to cast a meaningful vote at the ballot box.
SCHNEIDER: And on the other side, we've got Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who said any claim that the maps are discriminatory is absurd. He called the ruling erroneous and has gone to the Supreme Court.
MART脥NEZ: Now, California's redistricting response to Texas, that was Prop 50. That was passed by voters earlier this month. It faces its own legal battle, with its first court date set for December 3. But, Andrew, I mean, so far, it looks like Gavin Newsom, the governor of California will move forward with it.
SCHNEIDER: Yeah. Usually, states redistrict at the start of the decade when a census comes in, but now because of Trump, there's a redistricting race across the country. California already responded to Texas by drawing maps designed to give Democrats help winning five seats there. Missouri and North Carolina have redistricted to Republicans. It's ongoing, and it could determine who runs the House in 2027, and Democrats can check the Trump agenda.
MART脥NEZ: All right. That's Houston Public Media's Andrew Schneider. Thanks a lot, Andrew.
SCHNEIDER: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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