Will the FBI help the Republican Party force through a partisan redistricting plan in Texas, or not? The answer to that question is of vital importance to sustaining American democracy. Republican state legislative leaders want to redraw Texas’s congressional districts to give their party as many as five more seats in next year’s midterm elections.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday that the FBI does not have jurisdiction to return Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled their state. “Texas lawmakers are digging in. You heard