The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed California to use a new congressional map that will undermine President Donald Trump’s effort to keep control of the House of Representatives, marking a defeat for Republicans who claimed one of the new districts was redesigned based on race rather than politics.
There were no noted dissents, and the court did not explain its reasoning.
The emergency appeal from state Republicans was the latest to reach the high court tied to an ongoing arms-race-style mid-decade redistricting that Trump initiated to keep the House after the midterm elections.
California redrew its map, which puts five GOP-held seats in play, as a response to a partisan redistricting in Texas that benefited Republicans.
See here for the previous update. I’ll say again, if California ends up netting more Democratic seats than Texas nets Republican ones – a real possibility at this point – it will be the funniest own goal in at least the recent history of Texas politics. And we could all use the laugh.