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BRIEF: Supreme Court Lets Texas Use New Congressional Map in 2026 – DrWeb’s Domain

BRIEF: Supreme Court Lets Texas Use New Congressional Map in 2026

December 4, 2025 — DrWeb’s Domain

Editor’s Note: I was assisted in preparing this brief on today’s SCOTUS ruling for Trump Administration –again. I sense a pattern?

ChatGPT prepared the brief format, did core online research, and we edited together the summary. I can save and re-use the layout for key new events or information. The summary PDF in inline below, and also linked for you in the Sources. The new site logo for BRIEF was prepared by Sora.–DrWeb

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for Texas to use its new congressional map in the 2026 elections, granting a stay in Abbott v. League of United Latin American Citizens (No. 25A608). The 6–3 order blocks a lower-court ruling that found the map likely discriminates against Latino voters, and keeps in place a plan widely viewed as favorable to Texas Republicans and former President Trump.

The unsigned majority stresses judicial caution about changing election rules once candidate filing is underway, leaning on its recent use of the so-called Purcell principle. It also faults the three-judge district court for not giving enough deference to the legislature’s stated, ostensibly partisan motives, and for moving too aggressively while primaries are already on the calendar.

In dissent, Justice Kagan, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson, accuses the Court of quietly rewriting how Voting Rights Act cases work. The dissent argues that the trial court carefully documented racial vote dilution and that with the 2026 elections still months away, there was ample time to fix the map instead of locking it in for this cycle.

Practically, the ruling means Texas keeps a map that could help Republicans hold or gain House seats in a closely divided Congress, and it raises the bar for future challenges to partisan-tilted maps nationwide. It is another sign that federal oversight of redistricting is shrinking, even as states openly redraw lines to maximize partisan advantage.

25a608_7khn Download

Sources

Supreme Court of the United States, Abbott v. League of United Latin American Citizens, No. 25A608 (Dec. 4, 2025) — Opinion and dissent (PDF)

Associated Press — “Supreme Court allows Texas to use a congressional map favorable to Republicans in 2026”

Reuters — “Supreme Court revives pro-Republican Texas voting map sought by Trump”

SCOTUSblog — Case summary and analysis of the Texas redistricting stay

#2026 #63Vote #Brief #CongressionalMap #DissentsByKagan #DrWebSDomain #KetanjiBrownJackson #LatinoVoters #PartisanAdvantage #RedState #SCOTUS #SCOTUSFavorsTrump #SCOTUSblog #SoniaSotomayor #SupremeCourtOfTheUnitedStates #Texas #VotingRightsCases #VRA

DrWeb Sep 7, 2025

The Supreme Court has expanded Trump’s power. He’s seeking much more. – The Washington Post

Democracy Dies in Darkness

The Supreme Court has expanded Trump’s power. He’s seeking much more.

The president’s firing of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook and other cases could serve as major tests of how far the high court is willing to go.

September 1, 2025, 8 min

President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last month.
(Demetrius Freeman / The Washington Post)

By Justin Jouvenal

The Supreme Court has already expanded President Donald Trump’s authority in a string of emergency rulings, but in his firing of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook and other issues probably headed to the court, he’s signaling that he continues to seek broader powers for the executive branch.

The cases could serve as major tests of how much further the nation’s high court is willing to go to bless the president’s assertion of executive authority. They differ from previous showdowns because of the sheer magnitude of the authority Trump is seeking to wield and because he wants greater control over powers the Constitution ascribes to another branch of government.

In addition to Cook’s case, which could make its way to the high court after she sued last week, a blockbuster case over Trump’s tariffs is expected to arrive at the Supreme Court soon after an appeals court struck them down. The Trump administration’s pushto withhold tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid appropriated by Congress could also end up in the court.

Lisa Cook, center, at her Federal Reserve Board nomination hearing in 2023. (Drew Angerer /Getty Images)

Peter Shane, a law professor at New York University, called Trump’s assertions “breathtaking.”

“Other presidents have tried to use their authority aggressively, but usually it’s been done through aggressive interpretations of statutory law and in a pretty targeted way,” Shane said.

Each of the presidential powers being contested by Trump, he said, “is a challenge to what I think heretofore would have been regarded as a core power of Congress.”

The high court has already signaled openness to broad presidential authority to replace some heads of independent agencies.

The justices handed Trump a major victory in May when they allowed him to remove the leaders of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board while legal challenges play out over their firings. Trump gave no reasons for the dismissals.

The court’s conservative majority ruled that the Constitution vests all executive power in the president, so Trump could fire the agency heads “without cause” even though Congress set up the agencies to be insulated from political interference.

Continue/Read Original Article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/09/01/trump-presidential-power-supreme-court-tariffs-federal-reserve/

#2025 #America #DonaldTrump #Education #FederalReserve #Health #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #PowerGrab #Resistance #Science #SCOTUS #SCOTUSFavorsTrump #Tariffs #TheWashingtonPost #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates