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In a unsigned order, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted Texas to use a newly configured congressional district plan that is projected to include as many as five additional conservative-tilting districts. The six-to-three decision, issued on Thursday, grants a request by the state to lift a district court's injunction that had struck down the new map in November.

Court's Reasoning

The federal judge erroneously placed itself into an ongoing primary campaign, generating significant confusion and disrupting the fine balance of power in elections, the supreme court said in justifying its action.

The district court had previously found that Texas had likely sorted voters by their race – a practice known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it adopted the boundaries. It had ordered the state to employ the maps created after the last decennial survey for the next year's election.

Stinging Dissent

In a strongly worded objection, Justice Elena Kagan took issue with the majority's ruling. She argued that it disrespected the work of the lower court, observing that its opinion was crafted by a judge appointed by former President Donald Trump.

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

She continued, Today's ruling solidifies that Texas's new map, with all its increased political tilt, will govern next year's elections. And it guarantees that many Texas residents, for no good reason, will be placed in electoral districts due to their race. And that result, as this court has declared repeatedly, is a violation of the constitution.

Countrywide Redistricting Battle

The ruling occurs during a national battle over the redistricting of electoral maps. Texas is an essential part in efforts to transform the U.S. House map to protect a narrow Republican control. Typically, boundary revision takes place after a ten-year survey. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a bold mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer triggered a chain reaction among other states.

Republicans in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also passed new maps that could add a number of more GOP-friendly seats. The opposition, in response, have responded with revised boundaries in including California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those potential gains.

Political Responses

The Texas attorney general hailed the supreme court ruling. In a statement, he said the order protected Texas's prerogative to draw a map that secures representation favorable to his party. We are setting the precedent for restoring our country, through each electoral district and individual state, he stated.

In contrast, opposition party officials criticized the decision. It's incredibly disappointing that the Court has rubber stamped a map enacted by Texas Republicans which, simply put, is an extreme, racially gerrymandered map, said the chair of a major Democratic election organization.

Another leading House figure argued the court had another time damaged its legitimacy by rubber-stamping a racially gerrymandered map. This decision from the Court's far-right bloc proves extremists are willing to rig elections. The Texas map is a discriminatory power grab targeting Black and Latino voters, he added.