3 terrible reasons to allow Texas' racially rigged map

States can set unconstitutional laws on voting, apparently with immunity from judicial review.

- ERWIN CHEMERINSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

IT IS HARD TO imagine a worse decision than the Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday allowing Texas to use its new congressional maps designed to elect five more Republicans to the House of Representatives.

In a 6-3 decision, the six conservative justices have opened the door to states being able to adopt unconstitutional laws on voting — with immunity from judicial review for at least one election.

At the urging of President Trump, Texas' Republican-controlled state Legislature redrew congressional districts to help Republicans retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Gov. Greg Abbott signed this into law on Oct. 25. It was immediately challenged in court.

Pursuant to federal law, this was heard by a three-judge federal court. The judges conducted a nine-day hearing, involving the testimony of nearly two dozen witnesses and the introduction of thousands of exhibits. There is a factual record of more than 3,000 pages. In a 160-page opinion, with the majority opinion written by a judge appointed by Trump, the federal court found that Texas impermissibly used race as a basis for drawing the election districts. The Supreme Court has held for more than 30 years that it violates equal protection for the government to use race as a predominant factor in districting.

But the Supreme Court nonetheless overturned the district court’s decision and will allow Texas to use its new districts. The court gave three reasons.