Republicans are accusing federal judges and Democrats of a double standard — arguing that they are branded racist for redrawing political maps while Democrats face no scrutiny for doing the same in blue states like California and Illinois.

“For years, Democrats have engaged in partisan redistricting intended to eliminate Republican representation. But when Republicans respond in kind, Democrats rely on false accusations of racism to secure a partisan advantage,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued on Tuesday.

Paxton made the comments after a trio of federal judges delivered a ruling that blocked Texas from using a new congressional map drawn by Republicans earlier this year which would have created up to five more right-leaning U.S. House districts. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 map,” the judges said in the majority opinion. “But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map.”

Republicans found this reasoning as hypocritical.

“Both parties are redistricting to increase their political advantages, but only one party is being accused of doing it for nefarious reasons. It’s a double standard and I think most voters can see that,” veteran Republican strategist and communicator Ryan Williams told Fox News Digital. “The parties are simply trying to increase their representation in Congress.”

FEDERAL JUDGES BLOCK TEXAS FROM USING REDRAWN CONGRESSIONAL MAP

HOUSE DEM, 79, INDICATES HE MAY NOT RETIRE AFTER JUDGES STRIKE DOWN TEXAS CONGRESSIONAL MAP

The distinction between political and racial motivations for redistricting is crucially important. That’s because of a Supreme Court ruling that emphasizes states cannot allow race to be the main reason for redrawing district lines. But the ruling gives states a green light when it comes to political motivations.

Paxton is appealing the ruling, which will head to the Supreme Court.

And Republican Gov. Greg Abbott also sharply criticized the ruling, saying in a statement that Texas legislators “redrew our congressional maps to better reflect Texans’ conservative voting preferences — and for no other reason.”

“Any claim that these maps are discriminatory is absurd and unsupported by the testimony offered during 10 days of hearings,” Abbott argued.

TRUMP TARGETS RED STATE REPUBLICANS IN PUSH TO REDRAW CONGRESSIONAL MAPS

But the ruling suggested that in calling on Texas state lawmakers to draw new maps, the governor pointed to a Justice Department letter that alleged the state’s existing 2021 congressional map was unconstitutional because of the racial makeup of certain districts.

The judges’ opinion argued that by pointing to that letter, Abbott had “explicitly directed the Legislature to redistrict based on race.”

Democrats praised the ruling as a victory for the party — and for the Democratic state lawmakers who broke quorum for two weeks this summer and fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill in the Republican-dominated state legislature.

“Texas Democrats and the DNC fought valiantly for fair representation, and now, with this decision, the court has ruled that Texas Republicans cannot implement this blatant gerrymander in the next election,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement.

And John Bisognano, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee president, argued in a statement to Fox News that “Texas Republicans drew a mid-decade gerrymander that was not only immoral, but also clearly illegal, as a Trump-appointed judge pointed out in his opinion blocking the map. The national gerrymandering crisis Republicans started this year in Texas threatens to draw voters out of a meaningful role in the electoral process – that’s why the American people’s rejection of this scheme has been so forceful.” 

While Texas was the first red state to redraw its map this year at Trump’s urging, others have followed, including Missouri and North Carolina. And Ohio Republicans, thanks to a state requirement to redraw their maps, did just that, improving the GOP’s chances in two more congressional districts. A push is also underway in Indiana, with Florida and Kansas also mulling redrawing their maps.

Democrats are fighting back, led by California.

ABBOTT SIGNS TEXAS REDISTRICTING MAP INTO LAW, SECURING MAJOR GOP VICTORY AHEAD OF 2026 MIDTERMS

California voters two weeks ago overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative which will temporarily sidetrack the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.

That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.

“Donald Trump and Greg Abbott played with fire, got burned — and democracy won,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who masterminded the redistricting push in the Golden State, wrote on social media following the Texas ruling.

Illinois and Maryland, two blue states, and Virginia, where Democrats control the legislature, are also taking steps or seriously considering redistricting.

And in a blow to Republicans, a Utah district judge last week rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of next year’s elections.

And while Trump, to date, hasn’t weighed in on the ruling, Attorney General Pam Bondi predicted an eventual victory for Republicans.

“Texas’s map was drawn the right way for the right reasons,” she said on X. “We look forward to Texas’s victory at the Supreme Court.”

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The Texas ruling comes as the Supreme Court is actively weighing states’ use of race in the drawing of congressional maps. Justices heard a second round of oral arguments last month in Louisiana v. Callais, a case centered on that very issue. 

A majority of the court seemed poised to significantly weaken a key Voting Rights Act provision that prohibits states from diluting the power of minority voters, though the court has not yet issued a final ruling. 

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, is facing backlash on social media and labeled the “worst candidate possible” after she botched her facts while trying to tie Republicans to donations from Jeffrey Epstein during remarks on the House floor. 

After a tranche of Epstein-related documents were released earlier this week, Delegate Stacey Plaskett, the non-voting congressional representative for the U.S. Virgin Islands, came under fire for texting with the disgraced financier during a 2019 congressional hearing about Donald Trump’s potential conflicts of interest. 

Plaskett was fervently defended by several of her Democrat colleagues in the House after Republicans tried to censure her, including Crockett, who sought to accuse Republicans of their own ties to Epstein but failed miserably.

Crockett said she had her team “dig in” to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, which she claimed showed Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator and former member of Congress from New York, had accepted campaign donations from the disgraced financier in the past. However, the donations were from a different Jeffrey Epstein, prompting backlash from both parties against Crockett.

FAR-LEFT FIREBRAND SPENDS EYE-POPPING AMOUNT OF CAMPAIGN CASH ON LUXURY HOTELS, ‘TOP-TIER’ LIMO SERVICES

“If you’re looking for a good way to light $50 million on fire and lose by 15 points, then Jasmine Crockett is your candidate,” a Democratic strategist told Fox News Digital following Crockett’s floor remarks. Crockett has indicated she will decide by the Dec. 8 filing deadline whether she will throw her hat in the ring to challenge Republican incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

“She’s got no shot to win that Texas Senate race, and screw-ups like this show why she’s probably the worst candidate possible,” the Democratic strategist continued.

Republicans did not hold back on their criticism of Crockett. 

“Crockett should get censured for this and staff should be fired,” GOP strategist Matt Whitlock posted on X. “What a shocking embarrassment to go to the floor with this kind of insane accusation, and have the WRONG JEFFREY EPSTEIN.”

“Crockett getting this so badly wrong is I guess why politicians usually outsource their oppo research to the professionals,” Chuck Ross, a Washington Free Beacon investigative reporter, wrote on X. “But you also would expect a member of Congress to know more about FEC filings.”

“Jasmine Crockett completely misrepresented, indeed outright lied, about various GOP politicians’ potential past donor relationships with Epstein,” former New York GOP Congresswoman Nan Hayworth said. 

Zeldin was also quick to respond to the inaccuracy, noting the person he received campaign donations from was a physician also named Jeffrey Epstein.

HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS BID TO CENSURE DEMOCRAT OVER EPSTEIN LINKS GOES DOWN IN FLAMES

“NO [clapping emoji] FREAKIN [clapping emoji] RELATION [clapping emoji] YOU [clapping emoji] GENIUS!!!”

In addition to Zeldin, Crockett sought to claim other Republicans, such as Mitt Romney, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), George Bush, John McCain, Sarah Palin and others also received donations from the disgraced financier.  

“This is a distraction. … Why are y’all more interested in talking about Stacey Plaskett than Trump’s relationship with the man?” Crockett asked on the House floor, calling Trump and Epstein “besties” amid a resolution to censure Plaskett. 

“Miss me with your moral high ground. Folks who also took money from somebody named Jeffrey Epstein, as I had my team dig in very quickly: Mitt Romney, the NRCC, Lee Zeldin. George Bush, Win Red, McCain-Palin, Rick Lazio. … If this is the standard that we are going to make, just know we’re going to expose it all and just know that the FEC filings are available for everybody to review,” Crockett said.

Crockett had to be fact-checked just a few weeks ago for comments that attempted to make Republicans look like they were trying to hide facts about President Trump as it pertains to Epstein’s crimes. 

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During an interview on CNN, Crockett attempted to claim Republicans redacted important information from documents about Epstein’s crimes. However, the hosts of the segment jumped in to correct the record, telling Crockett that it was actually Democrats who decided to black out the name of one of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Giuffre, who did not accuse President Trump of any wrongdoing. 

“Her recitation of the facts is simply, that, ‘I’m not going to trust Republicans. They probably made that up. And, by the way, we would never redact the name of somebody who is deceased anyway,’” conservative radio host Vince Coglianese said of Crockett’s CNN debacle. 

“Jasmine Crockett was trying to — literally, on the spot — come up with a conspiracy theory in order to defend the callous and disgraceful behavior of Democrats. Where have we seen this before? Well, I don’t know, every Democrat made-up scandal about Donald Trump we’ve seen ever. They’re constantly trying to defame him. It’s the wrap-up smear constantly delivered over, and over, and over again.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Crockett for comment but did not receive a response.  

U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force in Texas on Monday arrested a wanted Mexican national accused of viciously murdering a woman years after he was deported.

Hernan Perez Juarez, also known as “Patricio Perez,” 41, is charged with murder in connection to the May 8, 2020, killing of a woman who was found dead in her Georgetown, Texas, bathtub with a deep cut in her lower abdomen.

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Perez Juarez was deported in 2018 for an immigration violation and had no legal status in the U.S.

ICE NABS 3-TIME DEPORTED ILLEGAL ALIEN CHARGED WITH ASSAULTING A POLICE OFFICER: ‘GOOD RIDDANCE’

He allegedly reentered the country before the crime, and authorities later found his vehicle abandoned in Laredo, near the international border of Mexico, according to the U.S. Marshals.

In March 2022, the Georgetown Police Department (GPD) obtained an arrest warrant for Perez Juarez, though the case stalled due to his unknown whereabouts.

VENEZUELAN MAN WANTED FOR RUSSIAN ROULETTE TORTURE ATTACK CAPTURED BY ICE AGENTS IN NORTH TEXAS

Earlier this month, an Austin-based task force learned Perez Juarez returned to the U.S. illegally, according to the U.S. Marshals. 

He was arrested in Temple, Texas on Monday and taken to the Williamson County Jail awaiting further judicial proceedings.

ICE has filed an immigration detainer on Perez Juarez following the judicial process in Williamson County, according to the U.S. Marshals.

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.