🔗 Share this article

In a per curiam ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted Texas to use a revised congressional district plan that is projected to include several five new GOP-friendly districts. The six-to-three decision, released on Thursday, grants a request by the state to set aside a district court's block that had struck down the new map in November.

Court's Reasoning

The federal judge improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, creating much confusion and upsetting the delicate balance of power in elections, the supreme court said in justifying its action.

That lower court had determined that Texas had probably grouped voters based on their race – a act known as racial gerrymandering – when it adopted the new maps. It had ordered the state to use the districts drawn after the most recent national count for the forthcoming election.

Sharp Dissent

In a strongly worded dissent, Justice Elena Kagan objected to the majority's decision. She stated that it disregarded the work of the lower court, pointing out that its decision was written by a judge selected by ex-President Donald Trump.

We are a higher court than the district court, but we are not a better one when it comes to making such a fact-based decision, Kagan wrote in a opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Kagan added, Today's ruling guarantees that Texas's new map, with all its boosted partisan advantage, will govern next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas voters, for no good reason, will be grouped in electoral districts due to their race. And that result, as this court has stated repeatedly, is a infraction of the U.S. Constitution.

National Redistricting Struggle

This decision comes amid a countrywide contest over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is a crucial component in campaigns to reshape the U.S. House map to bolster a slim Republican control. Typically, boundary revision happens after a ten-year survey. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a brazen mid-cycle redistricting earlier this year triggered a chain reaction among other states.

Conservative legislators in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also passed redistricting plans that are estimated to yield a number of additional GOP-friendly seats. Democrats, for their part, have pushed back with their own plans in including California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those potential gains.

Partisan Reactions

Lone Star State attorney general hailed the High Court's decision. In a statement, he said the order protected Texas's basic authority to draw a map that ensures representation aligned with Republicans. We are setting the precedent for restoring our country, through each electoral district and individual state, he stated.

In contrast, opposition party representatives criticized the outcome. It is deeply disheartening that the Court has endorsed this severely racially gerrymandered plan from Texas Republicans, said the leader of a major Democratic campaign committee.

A leading Democratic leader said the court had yet again damaged its standing by approving a discriminatory map. Tonight's ruling by far-right justices on the supreme court is further proof that the extremists will do anything to rig the midterm elections. The gerrymandered Texas congressional map is a partisan and racially discriminatory power grab designed to subvert the will of the voters – particularly in Black and Latino communities, he stated.