Supreme Court Approves Revised Texas House Electoral Boundaries.

In a unattributed order, the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed Texas to use a revised congressional boundary scheme that is projected to include up to five new Republican-leaning districts. The 6-3 order, released on Thursday, upholds a petition by the state to set aside a lower court's block that had rejected the new map in November.

Justices' Explanation

The lower court wrongly interjected itself into an ongoing primary campaign, creating significant confusion and disturbing the sensitive equilibrium in elections, the order stated in justifying its ruling.

The district court had determined that Texas had probably classified voters by their race – a practice known as racial gerrymandering – when it adopted the boundaries. It had instructed the state to revert to the boundaries drawn after the most recent national count for the forthcoming election.

Sharp Dissenting Opinion

Through a strongly worded dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan took issue with the court's action. She argued that it disregarded the work of the lower court, noting that its decision 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 wrote in a dissent co-signed by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The justice went on, The majority's order guarantees that Texas's new map, with all its enhanced favoritism, will control next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas voters, without justification, will be grouped in electoral districts based on their race. And that result, as this court has stated consistently, is a violation of the law of the land.

National Redistricting Struggle

The court's action is part of a national contest over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in efforts to transform the U.S. House map to secure a fragile Republican majority. Ordinarily, map-drawing takes place after a decennial population count. Yet the action by Texas Republicans to proceed with a brazen 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 approved new maps that might create several additional Republican-leaning seats. Democrats, in response, have responded with new maps in states like California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those projected gains.

Political Reactions

The Texas AG praised the High Court's decision. In a statement, he said the order protected Texas's basic authority to draw a map that ensures representation favorable to his party. Our state is leading the charge to reclaim the nation, one district and one state at a time, he added.

Conversely, Democratic leaders criticized the decision. It is deeply disheartening that the Court has endorsed this severely racially gerrymandered plan from Texas Republicans, said the head of a major Democratic campaign committee.

A senior Democratic leader stated the court had another time damaged its credibility by upholding 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 stated.