Friday, October 31

THIS WEEK

Mapped: where redistricting battles are unfolding nationwide
DOJ walks back key evidence in defense of Portland deployment

REDISTRICTING

Live redistricting tracker: all the frightful updates

With more and more states entering the redistricting fray, we know it’s getting harder to follow President Donald Trump’s plan to rig the 2026 election by forcing GOP-controlled states to redraw their congressional maps.

To help you keep up with it all (and, frankly, to help us, too) Democracy Docket is proud to present a new live tracker that’s going to be your best ongoing guide to whatever jumps out at us next in this haunted house of undying redistricting legal nightmares. Go ahead and bookmark it now.

Here’s what we’ve been watching this week:

Texas, Missouri and North Carolina have all passed Trump gerrymanders – but those stories are far from over. Voters are fighting back in every state. Over here, we’re awaiting a ruling in Texas (always spooky), and Missouri alone has at least three court dates we’ll be tracking in November.

Then, there are GOP-controlled states where gerrymanders are just getting started or could start soon – like Indiana, where a redistricting special session is set to convene Monday.

We also have Democratic-led states responding with their own plans to counter the GOP – California and Virginia (and, as we learned this week, this list likely won’t include Maryland, although Gov. Wes Moore (D) is still holding that door open). California voters are now deciding whether to approve their new map, even as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sends election monitors to their polling sites. A new lawsuit this week could push New York into a redistricting battle, too.

The scariest part of all? If the Supreme Court rules in Callais v. Louisiana to strike down or significantly weaken Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, more GOP-controlled states could unleash new maps that decimate minority representation in Congress. And depending on when that ruling comes, the 2026 election could be gravely impacted. Read more about the latest redistricting news here.

No one else is covering redistricting like this: our exclusive live litigation map tracks every lawsuit shaping the 2026 congressional map — and the partisan balance of Congress — in real time. This transparent reporting is powered by readers like you.

Become a member to keep resources like this free for all.

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NATIONAL GUARD

‘We deeply regret these errors’: DOJ walks back key evidence

In a stunning admission, a DOJ attorney said this week the Trump administration made several “errors” on a key point of fact: how many special law enforcement officers it sent to Portland. It was a rare walkback from a department that, since Trump took office, has been experiencing something like a legal zombie apocalypse.

The DOJ’s letter to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals came as part of an ongoing legal battle over Trump’s attempted military deployment in Oregon.

Attempting to prove that Trump had the authority to send troops into the city, government officials claimed that despite deploying 115 Federal Protection Service (FPS) officers (25% of their force), Trump was unable to enforce law in Portland and was justified in calling up Oregon National Guard troops to assist. The Ninth Circuit also relied on this finding in its now vacated Oct. 20 order allowing troops to deploy to Portland.

The DOJ has now admitted the government sent only 86 FPS officials to Portland throughout the summer, with no more than 31 FPS officials present at any one time. After this week’s trial, the judge could block the deployment again. Read more about the Portland trial here.

OPINION

Only North Carolina Voters Can Stop the GOP Gerrymander

With all the bleak redistricting news around the country, Billy Corriher with People’s Parity Project is focused on how we get to the other side of this mess.

In North Carolina, Corriher has a plan: “There’s a long-term path to defeating the gerrymander — but only if voters act to put pro-democracy judges on the state’s highest court.” Read more here.

NEW EPISODE

Why Smart People Keep Getting Trump's DOJ Scandal Wrong

Donald Trump has corrupted the Department of Justice into a weapon against his political opponents — and too many legal experts are falling into a dangerous trap by pretending it’s still a normal institution. In this video, Marc breaks down how authoritarians use “rule by law” to punish enemies, why the DOJ can no longer be trusted under Trump, and how doctrines like the “presumption of regularity” enable abuse of power. Watch it on YouTube here.

What We’re Doing

We have a Halloween-inspired democracy book recommendation this week, brought to you by Democracy Docket senior reporter Matt Cohen (who is also a scholar of the horror genre, which helps to explain how he has the capacity to monitor right-wing activists for a living). Matt says: “Covering far-right extremism is kind of like watching a horror story unfold in real time — which is the exact premise of the book I can’t put down: Clay McLeod Chapman’s apt, surreal new novel, Wake Up And Open Your Eyes.

It’s about a far-right cable news network called Fax News (get it?) demonically possessing viewers into tearing the country apart. Chapman’s novel is not shy about its influences — They Live, Night of the Living Dead, and 28 Days Later immediately come to mind — nor is it subtle in its social commentary. A perfect spooky-season read for the politically minded.”