D. John Sauer, Trump's former attorney, will serve as U.S. solicitor general in the Trump administration. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Sauer said the lower court misunderstood what drove the Texas legislature to shift five districts in favor of Republicans. He said the move was not based on race, which could violate federal voting laws and the Constitution.
"There is overwhelming evidence — both direct and circumstantial — of partisan objectives, and any inference that the State inexplicably chose to use racial means is implausible," Sauer wrote.
Sauer also defended a letter Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon wrote to Texas this year demanding that it address "coalition districts" that favor Democrats, which the challengers to the map have seized on as evidence of race-based motives. Days after the letter, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, added redistricting to the legislature's agenda, leading to a stunning boycott in which state Democrats temporarily fled the state.
The lower court "misinterpreted the letter’s meaning; and more importantly, the court misunderstood the letter’s significance to the legislature’s adoption of the 2025 map," Sauer said.
The plaintiffs in the case, who include numerous voting and immigrant rights groups, argued that Dhillon's letter demanded dismantling the coalition districts and packing Black and Latino voters into other districts.
"The DOJ letter, riddled with legal and factual errors, incorrectly asserted that these districts were ‘unconstitutional coalition districts’ that Texas was required to ‘rectify’ by changing their racial makeup," the plaintiffs' attorneys wrote.
REAGAN-APPOINTED JUDGE TORCHES COLLEAGUES IN TEXAS MAP FIGHT
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is seen on Nov. 14, 2025 in Midlothian, Texas. (Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
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In a lengthy and wild tirade, Judge Jerry Brown, a Reagan appointee and the lone dissenter, called the three-judge panel's decision the "most blatant exercise of judicial activism" he had ever seen and a work of "fiction."
Justice Samuel Alito has administratively paused the panel's ruling, but the Supreme Court could now make a more lasting decision on the map at any time. Texas lawyers have also argued the high court should block the panel's decision because it interfered with the 2026 midterms, for which candidates were already filing to run based on the new map.
Ashley Oliver is a reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business, covering the Justice Department and legal affairs. Email story tips to ashley.oliver@fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-backs-texas-supreme-court-fight-over-republican-drawn-map