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Via an per curiam order, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Texas to use a revised congressional district plan that is projected to include as many as five new GOP-friendly districts. The six-to-three ruling, released on Thursday, upholds a petition by the state to overturn a lower court's ruling that had rejected the new map in November.

Court's Explanation

The district court erroneously placed itself into an ongoing primary campaign, causing significant confusion and disturbing the fine balance of power in elections, the order stated in justifying its decision.

The federal court had earlier ruled that Texas had probably classified voters by their race – a practice known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it enacted the redistricting plan. It had instructed the state to revert to the boundaries drawn after the most recent national count for the upcoming election.

Strong Opposition

Through a strongly worded dissent, Justice Elena Kagan objected to the court's decision. She stated that it disregarded the work of the lower court, pointing out that its opinion 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 stated in a opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The justice went on, Today's ruling ensures that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its increased political tilt, will govern next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas residents, without justification, will be sorted in electoral districts because of their race. And that result, as this court has pronounced repeatedly, is a breach of the law of the land.

Countrywide Redistricting Battle

The ruling occurs during a countrywide contest over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in pushes to transform the U.S. House map to bolster a fragile Republican hold. Typically, map-drawing occurs after a ten-year survey. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to proceed with a brazen off-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer triggered a series of events among other states.

Conservative legislators in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also approved redistricting plans that could add several additional GOP-friendly seats. The opposition, meanwhile, have countered with their own plans in states like California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those potential gains.

Political Responses

Lone Star State AG welcomed the High Court's decision. In a statement, he said the order defended Texas's fundamental right to draw a map that secures representation favorable to his party. Our state is leading the charge to reclaim the nation, one district and one state at a time, he remarked.

Conversely, Democratic leaders decried the decision. It is deeply disheartening that the Court has endorsed this severely racially gerrymandered plan from Texas Republicans, said the leader of a major Democratic election organization.

A senior Democratic figure said the court had once again shredded its standing by rubber-stamping a discriminatory 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 added.