The State of Texas, as expected, has filed an application for a stay at the Supreme Court of the 2-1 racial gerrymandering decision issued earlier this week (over a fiery dissent by Judge Smith). Justice Alito has already requested a response by 5 pm Monday and will almost certainly refer the question to the entire court.

Also as expected, Texas makes two primary arguments: first, this case comes too late under Purcell , with candidates filing for office under the 2026 lines now and the filing deadline coming December 8. If the Supreme Court does not intervene, it’s possible the timing of Texas primaries could be pushed back. The second argument is that this was all about politics to help Republicans, not race, and therefore the Texas legislature did not have the intent to do a

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