Elena Kagan Archives | American Democracy Minute

U.S. Supreme Court Majority Embraces Texas Redistricting, Ignores District Court Panel Racial Gerrymandering Findings

December 7, 2025December 16, 2025

The U.S. Supreme Court handed the State of Texas and the Trump administration a huge win December 4th, overruling a district court panel’s compelling racial gerrymandering findings. The gerrymandered maps likely deliver five more GOP congressional seats in the 2026 midterms.

U.S. Supreme Court Stays 5th Circuit, Allowing Louisiana’s Fairer Congressional Maps – Apparently Invoking the Purcell Principle

May 16, 2024May 16, 2024

We recently explained the Supreme Court’s Purcell principle and its impact. May 15th, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a shocking Fifth Circuit decision to throw out fairer Congressional districts for Louisiana. The Purcell principle apparently played a role.

New Mexico Redistricting Case One of the First to Employ a Partisan Gerrymandering Test Proposed by U.S. Supreme Court’s Justice Kagan

August 28, 2023December 30, 2023

An unusual New Mexico redistricting case reaches a state district court next month. Unusual in that it’s Republicans claiming that Democrats did the partisan gerrymandering, but also that it will be one of the first cases to employ a partisan gerrymandering test suggested by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan.