Indivisible Smith County Statement on SCOTUS Decision Allowing Use of 2025 Texas Redistricting Map

Tyler, TX — On Thursday Dec 4, 2025, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the state of Texas to implement its controversial 2025 congressional redistricting map — a map widely condemned as a racially gerrymandered plan that dilutes the political power of Black, Latino, and other communities of color. By doing so, the Court undermines decades of civil-rights progress and threatens the principle of one person, one vote in East Texas and across the state.  

“As civil-rights advocates warned from the start,” said Indivisible Smith County, “this map isn’t about ensuring fair representation — it’s about entrenching political power for a few, at the expense of many.”

Why this decision is a blow to communities of color

– In November 2025, a three-judge federal court struck down the 2025 map, finding substantial evidence that the state engaged in “unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.”  

– The 2025 map was drawn mid-decade after a rushed, nontransparent legislative process — a reality civil-rights groups predicted would harm Black and Hispanic voters.  

– By reinstating the map, the Court is essentially giving license to redraw districts along racial and partisan lines, undermining the constitutional guarantee of equal representation.

Voices of outrage from civil-rights organizations

The decision has drawn condemnation from national and statewide civil-rights leaders. As NAACP recently declared: “Black voters and other voters of color are not pawns to be wielded in a shameful, extreme power grab.”  

Similarly, in a statement issued by Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, executive director Damon T. Hewitt warned that Texas had “brazenly target[ed] Black and Brown communities, using race as the predominant factor, and dismantling majority-minority Congressional districts as the means to gain partisan advantage.”  

These denunciations — though issued for the entire state — resonate deeply here in Smith County and all of East Texas.

What this means for East Texas — and our resolve

For communities across East Texas, including Smith County — where people of color have long contributed more than their fair share to this state’s growth — this ruling is not abstract. It threatens our ability to elect representation that reflects our lived realities, fights for immigrant and working-class rights, and stand up against abuses like discriminatory ICE raids that disproportionately harm communities of color.

We stand with civil-rights organizations across the state. We stand for fair maps that reflect actual communities — not political power plays. And we will not surrender.

Indivisible Smith County calls on:

• Local, state, and national civil-rights organizations to continue their fight to overturn this decision.

• Voters — especially Black, Latino, immigrant, and working-class communities — to organize, register, and vote.

• Elected officials to publicly oppose the new map and work toward equitable representation.

Our democracy depends not on the whims of map-makers, but on the voices and votes of real people.