On December 4, 2025, the Supreme Court issued an unsigned emergency order allowing Texas to use a GOP-friendly map for the 2026 elections. Justice Elena Kagan authored the blistering dissent, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, criticizing the Court’s handling of race in redistricting and urging adherence to the district court’s findings. The dissent argues that the district court’s fact-finding on race-based gerrymandering should be respected under a clear-error standard, warning that today’s decision threatens the integrity of judicial review in redistricting cases and could have broad consequences for millions of Texans.
The central issue, she and her colleagues say, is not merely the particular map for 2026, but the Court’s willingness to bypass or downplay race-based line-drawing findings. The dissent emphasizes that the Court should apply a clear-error standard when reviewing such factual determinations and should respect the district court’s findings about how race influenced the map-drawing process. In doing so, it cautions against eroding the safeguards the Court has long asserted against racial classifications in redistricting.
This dispute sits at the intersection of race, partisanship, and the role of the judiciary in map-drawing. While Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton voiced support for the map’s use, Kagan’s dissent warns that the decision could undermine vulnerable communities in Texas and would have implications for judicial review in future map challenges. The Court’s action is framed as an emergency docket decision, but the dissent insists that the precedents and constitutional guarantees at stake demand careful, principled handling of race in redistricting rather than expedient political outcomes.
“This Court’s precedents and our Constitution demand better,” the dissent declares, underscoring a call for fidelity to established standards and the district court’s conclusions. The case has broad implications for how race and partisanship are treated in map-drawing across the United States, as well as for the integrity of judicial review in redistricting disputes.
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