Supreme Court Upholds Revised Texas Congressional Electoral Boundaries.
In a per curiam order, the nation's top court has allowed Texas to employ a redrawn congressional district plan that could add up to five new conservative-tilting districts. The 6-3 decision, issued on Thursday, approves a request by the state to lift a lower court's injunction that had rejected the boundaries in November.
Court's Rationale
The district court wrongly interjected itself into an active primary campaign, creating much confusion and upsetting the delicate balance of power in elections, the supreme court said in justifying its action.
The district court had previously found that Texas had likely sorted voters according to their race – a act known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it enacted the new maps. It had instructed the state to employ the boundaries established after the last decennial survey for the next year's election.
Sharp Dissent
In a sharply worded dissent, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the court's ruling. She argued that it undermined the work of the district court, pointing out that its decision was crafted by a judge appointed by ex-President Donald Trump.
Our position is above the district court, but our capability is not greater for resolving such fact-driven issues, Kagan argued in a dissent co-signed 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 guarantees that many Texas voters, without justification, will be placed in electoral districts due to their race. And that result, as this court has stated repeatedly, is a violation of the law of the land.
National Redistricting Struggle
The court's action occurs during a national contest over the remapping of electoral maps. Texas is a crucial component in efforts to alter the U.S. House map to secure a fragile Republican hold. Typically, redistricting occurs after a ten-year survey. Yet the action by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a bold mid-cycle redistricting earlier this year sparked a series of events among other states.
Republicans in including North Carolina and Missouri have also enacted redistricting plans that could add several additional conservative seats. Democrats, in response, have countered with their own plans in states like California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those projected gains.
Partisan Responses
The Texas top lawyer hailed the supreme court ruling. In a statement, he said the order defended Texas's basic authority to draw a map that guarantees representation supportive of the GOP. Our state is leading the charge to reclaim the nation, one district and one state at a time, he stated.
In contrast, Democratic leaders lamented the decision. It is deeply disheartening that the Court has endorsed this severely racially gerrymandered plan from Texas Republicans, said the chair of a major party campaign committee.
A leading House figure said the court had once again eroded its legitimacy by upholding 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.