November 21, 2025

In my 30 years as a lawyer, I have had a lot of strange weeks. But this one was among the weirdest.

On Monday, a federal court blocked Texas’ new congressional map. The opinion, authored by a judge appointed by Donald Trump, concluded that the Trump-approved map enacted this summer by the Texas Legislature was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

My law firm litigated the case. Democracy Docket covered the 10-day hearing from start to finish. I was very familiar with the constitutional infirmities of the Texas map. I had been writing for weeks that I thought there was a good chance the court would rule as it did. Yet few listened.

Then, suddenly, on Monday, the entire legacy media woke up and realized that Trump’s gambit to rig the maps for 2026 might have collapsed into a spectacular failure. My phone started ringing. Reporters wanted to interview me and get my reaction. My advice: Read Democracy Docket.

Yet that was not what made this week so weird....