🔗 Share this article

Through a per curiam order, the highest judicial body has allowed Texas to use a revised congressional map that could add as many as five new conservative-tilting districts. The 6-3 ruling, released on Thursday, approves a request by the state to overturn a district court's injunction that had struck down the redistricting plan in November.

Justices' Explanation

The district court wrongly interjected itself into an ongoing primary campaign, causing much confusion and disturbing the delicate federal-state balance in elections, the order stated in justifying its action.

The district court had previously found that Texas had likely classified voters according to their race – a practice known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it enacted the boundaries. It had ordered the state to revert to the boundaries created after the most recent national count for the next year's election.

Strong Dissent

With a sharply worded objection, Justice Elena Kagan took issue with the majority's ruling. She argued that it undermined the work of the lower court, noting that its ruling was actually authored by a judge appointed by ex-President Donald Trump.

While our court is superior in jurisdiction, we are not superior in making these fact-intensive determinations, Kagan stated in a dissent joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The justice went on, This court's stay solidifies that Texas's new map, with all its increased partisan advantage, will dictate next year's elections. And it means that many Texas residents, for no good reason, 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 violation of the law of the land.

National Map-Drawing Fight

The court's action is part of a national battle over the redistricting of electoral maps. Texas is an essential part in campaigns to transform the U.S. House map to secure a narrow Republican control. Typically, redistricting occurs after a decennial population count. Yet the action by Texas Republicans to initiate a brazen mid-cycle redistricting earlier this year sparked a wave among other states.

GOP lawmakers in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also enacted new maps that might create several additional conservative seats. The opposition, meanwhile, have pushed back with their own plans in states like California and Virginia, which might neutralize those potential gains.

Partisan Responses

Lone Star State attorney general hailed the High Court's decision. In a statement, he said the order defended Texas's fundamental right to draw a map that guarantees representation favorable to the GOP. We are setting the precedent for restoring our country, through each electoral district and individual state, he stated.

In contrast, Democratic leaders criticized the decision. It is deeply disheartening that the Court has endorsed this severely racially gerrymandered plan from Texas Republicans, said the head of a major party election organization.

A senior House figure stated the court had another time shredded 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.