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In a unsigned order, the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed Texas to employ a newly configured congressional boundary scheme that may create up to five additional GOP-friendly districts. The six-to-three ruling, released on Thursday, upholds a appeal by the state to lift a district court's injunction that had struck down the new map in November.

Court's Rationale

The district court erroneously placed itself into an active primary campaign, creating considerable confusion and disturbing the fine federal-state balance in elections, the supreme court said in explaining its decision.

The federal court had previously found that Texas had likely grouped voters according to their race – a method known as racial gerrymandering – when it passed the new maps. It had instructed the state to revert to the boundaries created after the most recent national count for the upcoming election.

Strong Dissent

Through a strongly worded objection, Justice Elena Kagan objected to the majority's action. She contended that it disregarded the work of the district court, observing that its ruling was crafted by a judge selected 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, Today's ruling ensures that Texas's new map, with all its boosted partisan advantage, will govern next year's elections. And it means that many Texas citizens, unjustly, will be placed in electoral districts because of their race. And that result, as this court has stated year in and year out, is a breach of the U.S. Constitution.

National Map-Drawing Fight

The ruling comes amid a countrywide battle over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in efforts to transform the U.S. House map to protect a slim Republican majority. Typically, map-drawing occurs after a ten-year survey. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to initiate a bold mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer set off a series of events among other states.

Republicans in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also passed redistricting plans that could add a number of more GOP-friendly seats. Democrats, in response, have responded with their own plans in including California and Virginia, which could offset those projected gains.

Political Responses

The Texas top lawyer hailed the High Court's decision. In a comment, he said the order protected Texas's fundamental right to draw a map that ensures representation supportive of the GOP. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by 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 leader of a major party campaign committee.

Another leading House figure stated the court had once again damaged its legitimacy 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 concluded.