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In a unattributed order, the nation's top court cleared the way for Texas to use a newly configured congressional district plan that may create as many as five additional conservative-tilting districts. The 6-3 decision, handed down on Thursday, approves a petition by the state to overturn a district court's injunction that had struck down the new map in November.

Court's Explanation

The district court erroneously placed itself into an active primary campaign, causing significant confusion and upsetting the delicate balance of power in elections, the justices wrote in detailing its action.

That lower court had earlier ruled that Texas had likely classified voters based on their race – a method known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it adopted the boundaries. It had mandated the state to employ the maps drawn after the 2020 census for the forthcoming election.

Sharp Dissenting Opinion

In a forcefully written dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the court's ruling. She stated that it disregarded the work of the lower court, pointing out that its ruling was actually authored by a judge nominated 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 dissent co-signed by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The justice went on, Today's ruling guarantees that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its boosted political tilt, will dictate next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas voters, for no good reason, will be sorted 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 law of the land.

Countrywide Redistricting Fight

The court's action occurs during a countrywide contest over the redistricting of electoral maps. Texas is an essential part in pushes to reshape the U.S. House map to protect a fragile Republican hold. Ordinarily, boundary revision occurs after a decennial population count. Yet the action by Texas Republicans to proceed with a aggressive off-cycle redistricting earlier this year set off a chain reaction among other states.

GOP lawmakers in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also enacted new maps that might create a number of more Republican-leaning seats. Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, have responded with new maps in states like California and Virginia, which might neutralize those potential gains.

Political Responses

The Texas top lawyer hailed the High Court's decision. In a comment, he said the order upheld Texas's fundamental right to draw a map that guarantees representation favorable to the GOP. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he remarked.

Conversely, Democratic officials criticized the ruling. It is deeply disheartening that the Court has endorsed this severely racially gerrymandered plan from Texas Republicans, said the chair of a major party election organization.

A senior Democratic leader said the court had yet again eroded its standing by rubber-stamping a race-based 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.