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In a unattributed decision, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted Texas to use a redrawn congressional district plan that could add as many as five additional conservative-tilting districts. The 6-3 decision, handed down on Thursday, grants a request by the state to lift a lower court's block that had invalidated the new map in November.

Justices' Explanation

The federal judge improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, generating considerable confusion and upsetting the sensitive balance of power in elections, the order stated in detailing its ruling.

That lower court had previously found that Texas had probably grouped voters by their race – a practice known as racial gerrymandering – when it enacted the boundaries. It had mandated the state to use the maps drawn after the last decennial survey for the upcoming election.

Stinging Opposition

In a forcefully written objection, Justice Elena Kagan took issue with the court's action. She stated that it undermined the work of the lower court, noting that its ruling was written 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 argued in a dissent co-signed by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Kagan added, This court's stay ensures that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its enhanced favoritism, will dictate next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas citizens, without justification, will be sorted in electoral districts based on their race. And that result, as this court has declared year in and year out, is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Countrywide Map-Drawing Fight

This decision comes amid a nationwide fight over the remapping of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in efforts to transform the U.S. House map to secure a narrow Republican hold. Typically, redistricting occurs after a decennial population count. Yet the action by Texas Republicans to proceed with a bold off-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer set off a series of events among other states.

Conservative legislators in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also passed new maps that might create several more GOP-friendly seats. Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, have responded with new maps in including California and Virginia, which might neutralize those potential gains.

Partisan Reactions

Lone Star State top lawyer welcomed the High Court's decision. In a release, he said the order protected Texas's basic authority to draw a map that ensures representation aligned with his party. Our state is leading the charge to reclaim the nation, one district and one state at a time, he added.

In contrast, opposition party officials decried the decision. The Court's approval of this extreme, racially gerrymandered Texas GOP map is profoundly disappointing, said the chair of a major Democratic election organization.

Another top Democratic figure said the court had another time eroded its legitimacy by rubber-stamping 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 concluded.