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In a unattributed decision, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Texas to use a redrawn congressional boundary scheme that is projected to include as many as five new Republican-leaning districts. The 6-3 order, issued on Thursday, upholds a request by the state to lift a lower court's block that had invalidated the redistricting plan in November.

Court's Explanation

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

The district court had determined that Texas had likely grouped voters according to their race – a method known as illegal race-based districting – when it adopted the redistricting plan. It had ordered the state to revert to the districts drawn after the 2020 census for the next year's election.

Stinging Dissenting Opinion

With a sharply worded dissent, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the court's ruling. She contended that it undermined the work of the district court, pointing out that its opinion was crafted by a judge nominated 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 argued in a dissent joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Kagan added, The majority's order ensures that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its enhanced partisan advantage, will govern next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas voters, without justification, will be placed in electoral districts based on their race. And that result, as this court has stated year in and year out, is a breach of the constitution.

National Redistricting Fight

This decision comes amid a nationwide battle over the redistricting of electoral maps. Texas is an essential part in efforts to transform the U.S. House map to bolster a slim Republican control. Typically, map-drawing happens after a decennial population count. Yet the action by Texas Republicans to proceed with a bold off-cycle redistricting earlier this year 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 a number of more conservative seats. The opposition, for their part, have responded with new maps in including California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those potential gains.

Partisan Reactions

The Texas attorney general welcomed the High Court's decision. In a comment, he said the order protected Texas's prerogative to draw a map that guarantees representation aligned with Republicans. We are setting the precedent for restoring our country, through each electoral district and individual state, he added.

In contrast, opposition party representatives decried the ruling. 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 head of a major Democratic campaign committee.

Another leading Democratic leader argued the court had once again shredded its credibility by approving a race-based 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 added.