Supreme Court Upholds Newly Drawn Lone Star State Congressional Districts.

In a unattributed order, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Texas to use a revised congressional district plan that could add several five new Republican-leaning districts. The six-to-three ruling, handed down on Thursday, upholds a request by the state to set aside a federal judge's injunction that had invalidated the new map in November.

Justices' Rationale

The district court erroneously placed itself into an ongoing primary campaign, generating much confusion and upsetting the fine equilibrium in elections, the order stated in detailing its ruling.

The federal court had previously found that Texas had probably classified voters based on their race – a act known as racial gerrymandering – when it passed the boundaries. It had ordered the state to revert to the boundaries drawn after the last decennial survey for the forthcoming election.

Stinging Dissenting Opinion

Through a forcefully written dissent, Justice Elena Kagan objected to the court's action. She contended that it undermined the work of the district court, noting that its decision was crafted by a judge appointed by ex-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 wrote in a opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Kagan added, This court's stay solidifies that Texas's new map, with all its enhanced political tilt, will govern next year's elections. And it guarantees that many Texas residents, for no good reason, will be grouped in electoral districts because of their race. And that result, as this court has pronounced repeatedly, is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

National Map-Drawing Fight

The court's action occurs during a countrywide battle over the remapping of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in campaigns to transform the U.S. House map to secure a fragile Republican hold. Usually, boundary revision takes place after a decennial population count. Yet the action by Texas Republicans to initiate a brazen off-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer sparked a series of events among other states.

Conservative legislators in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also passed redistricting plans that are estimated to yield a number of more conservative seats. The opposition, for their part, have pushed back with their own plans in states like California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those projected gains.

Political Responses

The Texas attorney general welcomed the supreme court ruling. In a release, he said the order protected Texas's prerogative to draw a map that secures representation favorable to the GOP. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he remarked.

In contrast, opposition party representatives lamented the ruling. The Court's approval of this extreme, racially gerrymandered Texas GOP map is profoundly disappointing, said the leader of a major Democratic campaign committee.

Another senior Democratic figure said the court had once again damaged its standing by approving a racially gerrymandered map. The ruling demonstrates a willingness to subvert democracy. This Texas plan is a partisan, racially biased scheme to undermine voter will, especially in communities of color, he stated.