By Brett Rowland

A federal court blocked Texas from using Republican-drawn maps, while the Department of Justice recently joined a legal challenge to California’s Democrat-drawn maps.

The big picture: The Texas court ordered the state to use the congressional lines in place before they were redrawn earlier this year. • “The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee, wrote in the decision. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.”

What we’re watching: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott filed an appeal that could take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Driving the news: Republicans and Democrats have long

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