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Through a unattributed ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Texas to employ a redrawn congressional map that may create up to five additional Republican-leaning districts. The six-to-three order, handed down on Thursday, upholds a request by the state to set aside a lower court's injunction that had invalidated the boundaries in November.

Justices' Reasoning

The lower court wrongly interjected itself into an ongoing primary campaign, creating considerable confusion and upsetting the sensitive balance of power in elections, the order stated in detailing its action.

That lower court had determined that Texas had probably grouped voters by their race – a act known as illegal race-based districting – when it adopted the boundaries. It had ordered the state to use the maps established after the last decennial survey for the forthcoming election.

Stinging Opposition

With a sharply worded dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan took issue with the court's decision. She contended that it disregarded the work of the district court, noting that its ruling was actually authored by a judge selected by former President Donald Trump.

Our position is above the district court, but our capability is not greater for resolving such fact-driven issues, Kagan argued in a dissent joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She continued, This court's stay guarantees that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its increased political tilt, will dictate next year's elections. And it guarantees that many Texas residents, without justification, will be sorted in electoral districts based on their race. And that result, as this court has stated repeatedly, is a infraction of the constitution.

National Redistricting Fight

The court's action occurs during a national contest over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in pushes to reshape the U.S. House map to secure a narrow Republican control. Usually, redistricting occurs after a new decade's census. Yet the action by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a bold mid-cycle redistricting earlier this year triggered a wave among other states.

Conservative legislators in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also passed redistricting plans that could add a number of more GOP-friendly seats. The opposition, meanwhile, have pushed back with new maps in including California and Virginia, which could offset those projected gains.

Political Responses

The Texas AG praised the supreme court ruling. In a release, he said the order protected Texas's prerogative to draw a map that guarantees electoral outcomes aligned with Republicans. We are setting the precedent for restoring our country, through each electoral district and individual state, he remarked.

On the other hand, opposition party officials decried the ruling. The Court's approval of this extreme, racially gerrymandered Texas GOP map is profoundly disappointing, said the chair of a major party campaign committee.

Another top House figure argued the court had another time damaged its credibility by rubber-stamping a race-based 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 concluded.