President Trump's demand that Texas congressional lines be redrawn to find more Republican seats notwithstanding, the mid-decade exercise is unorthodox but legal.

Guidelines for Redistricting

The backstory:

It's the U.S. Constitution that mandates states draw congressional lines, after each census, to reflect population changes. One of the arguments offered by Texas Republicans is that about 2 million more people have moved to the state since the last census, so it's appropriate to redraw the lines.

To get there, there are some specific guidelines.

First, districts have to represent roughly equal populations so that each member of Congress represents the same number of people.

It's the legal concept of 'One person, one vote'. Like squeezing a balloon, if a district gets smaller in on

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