Texas Trump redistricting census California Republicans constitutional.

Redistricting usually happens after the once-a-decade population count by the U.S. Census Bureau or in response to a court ruling. Now, Texas Republicans want to break that tradition. And other states could follow suit. President Trump has asked the Texas Legislature to create districts, in time for next year’s midterm elections, that will send five more Republicans to Washington and make it harder for Democrats to regain the majority and blunt his agenda. There’s no national impediment to a state trying to redraw districts in the middle of a decade and to do it for political reasons, such as increasing representation by the party in power.