Is Texas Going to Have a Primary? Redistricting Maps Go Back to Drawing Board

Maps are hard.

​The Texas primary is allegedly a little more than two months away, but some people still don't know what congressional or state-legislature district they're in, and the people running for those seats don't know who to court.

The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected a redistricting map drawn up by a panel of federal judges in San Antonio, who had found the original maps created by the GOP-dominated legislature to be unfair to minorities.

The supremes said the judges should not have cast aside the lege's map while making their own.

"As the Justices point out, courts are ill-suited to make policy judgments and redistricting is primarily the responsibility of the State," Texas AG Greg Abbott said. "The Court made clear in a strongly worded opinion that the district court must give deference to elected leaders of this state, and it's clear by the Supreme Court ruling that the district court abandoned these guiding principles."

The Texas Democratic Party wasn't totally discouraged. It issued this statement:

The Supreme Court did not strike down the interim maps. They issues they had pertained to the process by which the court arrived at new maps, not necessarily the maps themselves.

While it is not clear what the final districts will look like at this point, what is clear is that the state's original maps have been found to be discriminatory in some way by every court which has examined them.

The state's maps completely ignored the demographic realities of Texas. The Supreme Court did not approve the state's maps and we don't expect they ever will.

The state's primaries have already been pushed back from March to April 3 because of the redistricting fight. They may have to be rescheduled again.

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