🔗 Share this article

In a unattributed ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed Texas to use a newly configured congressional map that may create as many as five new Republican-leaning districts. The 6-3 order, handed down on Thursday, grants a appeal by the state to overturn a district court's ruling that had struck down the boundaries in November.

Court's Rationale

The district court erroneously placed itself into an active primary campaign, creating considerable confusion and upsetting the delicate equilibrium in elections, the order stated in justifying its action.

That lower court had determined that Texas had likely sorted voters according to their race – a practice known as racial gerrymandering – when it passed the boundaries. It had mandated the state to employ the maps drawn after the most recent national count for the upcoming election.

Strong Opposition

In a sharply worded dissent, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the majority's action. She contended that it undermined the work of the lower court, pointing out that its ruling was crafted by a judge appointed 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 argued in a dissent supported by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Kagan added, The majority's order solidifies that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its increased political tilt, will govern next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas citizens, without justification, will be placed 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 law of the land.

Countrywide Redistricting Fight

The ruling comes amid a countrywide battle over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is a crucial component in campaigns to alter the U.S. House map to secure a fragile Republican hold. Typically, map-drawing occurs after a ten-year survey. Yet the decision by Texas Republicans to proceed with a brazen mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer set off a chain reaction among other states.

GOP lawmakers in including North Carolina and Missouri have also passed redistricting plans that could add several additional GOP-friendly seats. The opposition, in response, have pushed back with new maps in states like California and Virginia, which might neutralize those projected gains.

Political Responses

The Texas top lawyer welcomed the supreme court ruling. In a release, he said the order upheld Texas's fundamental right to draw a map that guarantees representation supportive of his party. We are setting the precedent for restoring our country, through each electoral district and individual state, he remarked.

Conversely, Democratic representatives decried 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 election organization.

Another top Democratic leader said the court had yet again eroded its credibility by upholding a race-based map. This decision from the Court's far-right bloc proves extremists are willing to rig elections. The Texas map is a discriminatory power grab targeting Black and Latino voters, he added.