Federal Judge Issues Fiery Dissent From Ruling Striking Down Texas Redistricting

Judge Jerry E. Smith said the ruling comes so late in the process that it ‘turns the Texas electoral and political landscape upside down.’

Texas state Rep. Matt Morgan holds a map of proposed new congressional districts in Texas during a legislative session at the Texas State Capitol in Austin on Aug. 20, 2025. Sergio Flores/Reuters

A federal judge who was outvoted in a judicial panel’s decision to strike down a redrawn election map in Texas issued a blistering 104-page dissent on Nov. 19.

Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, who was appointed to a three-judge U.S. District Court panel hearing the case, said the 2–1 majority opinion of Nov. 18 invalidating the map was the “most blatant exercise of judicial activism that I have ever witnessed.”