Someone Ask Alito: If December Was Too Late To Fix Unconstitutional Gerrymandering For The 2026 Midterms, Why Is May Okay?

from the iokwyar dept

Last December, Justice Alito told Texans they had to vote under an unconstitutional gerrymander because changing maps in December would deprive them of “certainty” before the 2026 midterms. Yesterday, with voting already underway in Louisiana, he rushed the certified copy of the Calais ruling out the door so Southern states can hurry up and redistrict before that very same election.

It seems like a hypocrisy worth pointing out, even as Alito and the MAGA faithful will studiously look the other way.

I covered some of this on Friday after the Calais ruling first came out, but with Justice Samuel Alito rushing the certified copy of the decision to help speed up the redistricting of Southern states to wipe out Democratic districts, I feel like we need to make this point even clearer.

To briefly backtrack, in November, a Trump-appointed judge wrote an incredibly detailed ruling on why Texas’ attempt to gerrymander away Democratic districts was clearly unconstitutional. The ruling was 160 pages of incredibly thorough argument and analysis.

The ruling went to the Supreme Court where, on the shadow docket, it was overturned with a five paragraph explanation with little detail. Justice Alito added a concurrence, in which he talked up the importance of “certainty” for Texans on which map would be used for the 2026 election (still months away, and ignoring that if the lower court ruling held, the maps would remain as they were for the 2024 election, which everyone was used to). But, no, can’t interfere with the election map in December before an election year claims Samuel Alito:

I join the order issued by the Court. Texas needs certainty on which map will govern the 2026 midterm elections, so I will not delay the Court’s order by writing a detailed response to each of the dissent’s arguments.

Ah yes, certainty.

About that. On Monday, Alito agreed to rush making last week’s Calais ruling official. While normally there’s a 32-day waiting period, Alito said we needed to jump the gun… because he knows that a bunch of Southern states want to speed up their redistricting plans, even though some have already begun voting. In a pissy response to Justice Jackson’s dissent (which Alito calls “baseless,” “trivial,” and “insulting”) he also argues:

The dissent would require that the 2026 congressional elections in Louisiana be held under a map that has been held to be unconstitutional.

Um. Yes. But the Texas map was also held to be unconstitutional. In great detail. And you said it was too late to change it for this year’s election.

Meanwhile, Louisiana’s voting has already started. And you’re now rushing this decision, allowing Louisiana to try to claim a state of emergency to stop the voting, and ignore the will of the people… because you think it’s “insulting” that Louisiana might have to vote on districting that you’ve just declared unconstitutional.

Can some journalist please ask Alito why December was too late to fix Texas’s unconstitutional map — when voters there needed “certainty” — but May isn’t too late to halt an in-progress Louisiana election to fix theirs?

Literally the only consistent throughline is that both decisions favor the election of more Republican candidates.

Filed Under: calais, gerrymandering, louisiana, samual alito, supreme court, texas