“Confirmed Judges, Confirmed Fears” is a blog series documenting the harmful impact of President Trump’s judges on Americans’ rights and liberties. It includes judges nominated in both his first and second terms.
What’s at stake in this case?
Civil rights groups and others challenged a Texas redistricting plan as discriminatory.
What happened in this case?
Urged on by the Trump Administration, Texas adopted a new House redistricting plan that would likely add five new seats to the Republican column before the 2026 elections and was challenged as racially discriminatory. As reported in a previous blog entry, lower court judges appointed by Trump and Obama held a hearing and issued a 160-page decision stopping the implementation of the voting plan.
Texas immediately took the case to the Supreme Court’s shadow docket. The case was decided on December 4, 2025 as Abbott v League of United Latin American Voters.
How did the Trump justices and the rest of the majority decide?
In an unsigned and short “shadow” ruling, Trump justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, plus Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas and Alito, stayed the lower court decision, effectively allowing Texas to use its new maps in the 2026 mid-term election. The majority claimed that the evidence of discriminatory intent was too “ambiguous” and “circumstantial” and that no “viable alternative map” was prepared.
How did Justices Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson rule in dissent?
Justice Kagan, joined by Justice Sotomayor and Jackson, strongly dissented. Kagan noted that the majority’s reversal was based only on a “perusal, over a holiday weekend, of a cold paper record.” The majority’s order, she went on, “disserves the millions of Texans whom the District Court found were assigned to their districts because of their race.” She carefully reviewed the district court’s evidence and record and found no error, criticizing the majority for deciding to “playact” being a district court rather than properly reviewing the lower court’s decision. Kagan concluded that the ruling would unfortunately “govern next year’s elections” and is a clear “violation of the Constitution.”
Why is the result harmful?
The ruling by Trump justices Gorsuch, Kavanugh, and Barrett, plus Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito and Thomas, could ensure up to five more Republican seats in Congress and weaken the voting power of minorities in Texas.. In addition, the decision illustrates the importance of our federal courts to health, welfare and justice and the significance of having fair-minded judges on the federal bench.