🔗 Share this article

Via an per curiam order, the nation's top court permitted Texas to implement a redrawn congressional district plan that is projected to include up to five additional Republican-leaning districts. The six-to-three ruling, issued on Thursday, grants a appeal by the state to set aside a federal judge's ruling that had rejected the boundaries in November.

Justices' Reasoning

The federal judge erroneously placed itself into an ongoing primary campaign, creating considerable confusion and upsetting the fine balance of power in elections, the order stated in detailing its decision.

That lower court had determined that Texas had probably grouped voters by their race – a practice known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it adopted the boundaries. It had instructed the state to employ the boundaries created after the last decennial survey for the forthcoming election.

Strong Opposition

In a sharply worded dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan took issue with the majority's action. She stated that it disrespected the work of the lower court, pointing out that its decision was actually authored by a judge appointed 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 stated in a dissent joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The justice went on, This court's stay guarantees that Texas's new map, with all its boosted favoritism, will dictate next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas residents, without justification, will be sorted in electoral districts due to their race. And that result, as this court has pronounced repeatedly, is a infraction of the constitution.

National Map-Drawing Struggle

The ruling comes amid a national contest over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is an essential part in efforts to transform the U.S. House map to protect a slim Republican control. Typically, map-drawing happens after a decennial population count. Yet the decision by Texas Republicans to proceed with a bold off-cycle redistricting earlier this year sparked a wave among other states.

Republicans in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also enacted redistricting plans that might create several more conservative seats. Democratic lawmakers, for their part, have responded with new maps in including California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those projected gains.

Partisan Responses

Lone Star State top lawyer praised the supreme court ruling. In a comment, he said the order upheld Texas's basic authority to draw a map that ensures representation supportive of his party. Our state is leading the charge to reclaim the nation, one district and one state at a time, he added.

In contrast, Democratic officials lamented the decision. The Court's approval of this extreme, racially gerrymandered Texas GOP map is profoundly disappointing, said the leader of a major party campaign committee.

A top Democratic leader argued the court had once again shredded its legitimacy by upholding a racially gerrymandered 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 added.