🔗 Share this article

Via an unattributed ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed Texas to use a redrawn congressional map that may create several five additional Republican-leaning districts. The 6-3 ruling, handed down on Thursday, upholds a request by the state to set aside a lower court's injunction that had rejected the boundaries in November.

Court's Rationale

The federal judge wrongly interjected itself into an active primary campaign, creating significant confusion and disturbing the delicate balance of power in elections, the supreme court said in detailing its ruling.

The federal court had determined that Texas had likely grouped voters by their race – a practice known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it passed the new maps. It had ordered the state to employ the boundaries established after the 2020 census for the forthcoming election.

Stinging Dissenting Opinion

In a strongly worded objection, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the court's decision. She stated that it undermined the work of the district court, observing that its decision was crafted by a judge selected by former 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 dissent co-signed by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The justice went on, Today's ruling ensures that Texas's new map, with all its boosted favoritism, will dictate next year's elections. And it guarantees that many Texas residents, without justification, will be grouped in electoral districts based on their race. And that result, as this court has pronounced year in and year out, is a breach of the U.S. Constitution.

National Redistricting Fight

The ruling is part of a nationwide contest over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in pushes to alter the U.S. House map to secure a narrow Republican control. Usually, boundary revision occurs after a decennial population count. Yet the decision by Texas Republicans to initiate a bold mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer set off a chain reaction among other states.

Conservative legislators in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also approved redistricting plans that could add a number of more conservative seats. Democrats, meanwhile, have pushed back with their own plans in states like California and Virginia, which could offset those potential gains.

Partisan Responses

Lone Star State top lawyer welcomed the supreme court ruling. In a release, he said the order protected Texas's basic authority to draw a map that ensures electoral outcomes supportive of Republicans. Our state is leading the charge to reclaim the nation, one district and one state at a time, he remarked.

Conversely, Democratic leaders lamented the ruling. It's incredibly disappointing that the Court has rubber stamped a map enacted by Texas Republicans which, simply put, is an extreme, racially gerrymandered map, said the leader of a major party campaign committee.

A leading Democratic leader said the court had another time eroded its standing by rubber-stamping a discriminatory map. The ruling demonstrates a willingness to subvert democracy. This Texas plan is a partisan, racially biased scheme to undermine voter will, especially in communities of color, he concluded.