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Through a per curiam order, the nation's top court cleared the way for Texas to employ a revised congressional map that could add as many as five new GOP-friendly districts. The six-to-three ruling, handed down on Thursday, grants a request by the state to overturn a federal judge's injunction that had struck down the new map in November.

Justices' Explanation

The district court erroneously placed itself into an active primary campaign, generating much confusion and disturbing the delicate balance of power in elections, the supreme court said in explaining its ruling.

The district court had determined that Texas had likely classified voters according to their race – a act known as illegal race-based districting – when it enacted the new maps. It had ordered the state to use the districts drawn after the last decennial survey for the forthcoming election.

Stinging Opposition

In a forcefully written dissent, Justice Elena Kagan took issue with the court's decision. She argued that it disrespected the work of the lower court, pointing out that its ruling was crafted by a judge selected by former President Donald Trump.

While our court is superior in jurisdiction, we are not superior in making these fact-intensive determinations, Kagan argued in a dissent supported by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She continued, Today's ruling solidifies that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its enhanced partisan advantage, will control next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas citizens, without justification, will be placed in electoral districts due to their race. And that result, as this court has stated consistently, is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

National Redistricting Fight

The court's action is part of a national battle over the redistricting of electoral maps. Texas is a crucial component in pushes to transform the U.S. House map to bolster a narrow Republican majority. Ordinarily, redistricting takes place after a new decade's census. Yet the decision by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a brazen mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer triggered a chain reaction among other states.

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

Political Reactions

Lone Star State AG praised the supreme court ruling. In a release, he said the order upheld Texas's basic authority to draw a map that ensures electoral outcomes aligned with his party. We are setting the precedent for restoring our country, through each electoral district and individual state, he stated.

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

Another leading House figure stated the court had yet again damaged its legitimacy by approving 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.