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Through a per curiam decision, the nation's top court cleared the way for Texas to use a newly configured congressional map that could add as many as five new Republican-leaning districts. The six-to-three order, released on Thursday, grants a petition by the state to lift a district court's block that had invalidated the redistricting plan in November.

Justices' Reasoning

The lower court improperly inserted itself into an ongoing primary campaign, causing significant confusion and disturbing the delicate equilibrium in elections, the justices wrote in detailing its decision.

That lower court had previously found that Texas had likely grouped voters based on their race – a practice known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it enacted the redistricting plan. It had instructed the state to revert to the districts drawn after the most recent national count for the upcoming election.

Stinging Dissent

With a forcefully written dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan objected to the majority's decision. She argued that it disregarded the work of the lower court, pointing out that its decision 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 stated in a dissent supported by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Kagan added, This court's stay guarantees that Texas's new map, with all its increased partisan advantage, will govern next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas residents, unjustly, will be grouped in electoral districts because of their race. And that result, as this court has pronounced repeatedly, is a breach of the U.S. Constitution.

Countrywide Map-Drawing Fight

The ruling occurs during a nationwide battle over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in efforts to alter the U.S. House map to secure a slim Republican control. Ordinarily, boundary revision happens after a ten-year survey. Yet the action by Texas Republicans to initiate a bold mid-cycle redistricting earlier this year sparked a wave among other states.

Republicans in including North Carolina and Missouri have also approved new maps that could add a number of additional Republican-leaning seats. The opposition, for their part, have pushed back with new maps in states like California and Virginia, which could offset those projected gains.

Partisan Responses

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

Conversely, Democratic officials criticized the ruling. The Court's approval of this extreme, racially gerrymandered Texas GOP map is profoundly disappointing, said the chair of a major Democratic campaign committee.

A senior Democratic leader said the court had another time eroded its credibility 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 added.