Supreme Court Upholds Redrawn Texas House Maps.
Through a unsigned order, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Texas to employ a revised congressional boundary scheme that is projected to include as many as five additional conservative-tilting districts. The six-to-three decision, issued on Thursday, upholds a request by the state to overturn a district court's ruling that had struck down the redistricting plan in November.
Justices' Explanation
The district court erroneously placed itself into an ongoing primary campaign, causing much confusion and upsetting the fine federal-state balance in elections, the order stated in justifying its action.
The federal court had determined that Texas had probably grouped voters by their race – a act known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it enacted the redistricting plan. It had mandated the state to use the districts drawn after the last decennial survey for the next year's election.
Sharp Dissent
In a sharply worded dissent, Justice Elena Kagan objected to the court's action. She argued that it disrespected the work of the district court, noting that its opinion was written by a judge nominated by ex-President Donald Trump.
While our court is superior in jurisdiction, we are not superior in making these fact-intensive determinations, Kagan argued in a opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Kagan added, The majority's order guarantees that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its boosted political tilt, will govern next year's elections. And it means that many Texas residents, unjustly, will be grouped in electoral districts because of their race. And that result, as this court has pronounced consistently, is a breach of the constitution.
Countrywide Map-Drawing Battle
The court's action occurs during a national battle over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is a crucial component in campaigns to transform the U.S. House map to bolster a narrow Republican hold. Ordinarily, boundary revision takes place after a ten-year survey. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to initiate a brazen off-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer triggered a series of events among other states.
GOP lawmakers in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also passed new maps that could add a number of additional GOP-friendly seats. Democrats, meanwhile, have countered with their own plans in states like California and Virginia, which could offset those potential gains.
Partisan Responses
The Texas attorney general hailed the High Court's decision. In a comment, he said the order upheld Texas's prerogative to draw a map that guarantees representation supportive of his party. Our state is leading the charge to reclaim the nation, one district and one state at a time, he stated.
Conversely, Democratic officials decried the ruling. It's incredibly disappointing that the Court has rubber stamped a map enacted by Texas Republicans which, simply put, is an extreme, racially gerrymandered map, said the chair of a major party campaign committee.
A senior House figure stated the court had yet again eroded its legitimacy by upholding a race-based map. The ruling demonstrates a willingness to subvert democracy. This Texas plan is a partisan, racially biased scheme to undermine voter will, especially in communities of color, he concluded.
