Supreme Court Backs Redrawn Texas Congressional Maps.
Through a unsigned decision, the highest judicial body has allowed Texas to use a newly configured congressional district plan that may create several five additional conservative-tilting districts. The 6-3 order, released on Thursday, upholds a request by the state to set aside a lower court's block that had rejected the boundaries in November.
Court's Reasoning
The federal judge erroneously placed itself into an ongoing primary campaign, generating considerable confusion and disturbing the fine equilibrium in elections, the justices wrote in explaining its decision.
That lower court had earlier ruled that Texas had probably classified voters based on their race – a practice known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it passed the redistricting plan. It had ordered the state to use the districts established after the most recent national count for the next year's election.
Stinging Dissenting Opinion
In a strongly worded objection, Justice Elena Kagan took issue with the majority's action. She contended that it undermined the work of the district court, pointing out that its opinion was crafted by a judge appointed by former 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 stated in a opinion co-signed by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
She continued, This court's stay guarantees that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its boosted political tilt, will control next year's elections. And it guarantees that many Texas citizens, unjustly, will be placed in electoral districts because of their race. And that result, as this court has stated consistently, is a infraction of the constitution.
Countrywide Redistricting Battle
This decision is part of a countrywide contest over the remapping of electoral maps. Texas is a crucial component in efforts to alter the U.S. House map to secure a slim Republican hold. Ordinarily, redistricting occurs after a decennial population count. Yet the action by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a aggressive off-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer triggered a chain reaction among other states.
Conservative legislators in including North Carolina and Missouri have also approved new maps that are estimated to yield several additional GOP-friendly seats. Democratic lawmakers, in response, have responded with new maps in states like California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those projected gains.
Political Responses
The Texas AG hailed the High Court's decision. In a comment, he said the order protected Texas's fundamental right to draw a map that guarantees representation favorable to his party. We are setting the precedent for restoring our country, through each electoral district and individual state, he added.
In contrast, Democratic representatives 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 House leader said the court had another time damaged its standing by approving a discriminatory 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 stated.