Topline
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a new congressional map out of Texas that could net Republicans five seats in the House, permitting the map’s use Thursday, weeks after a panel of judges blocked it over racial gerrymandering.
Key Facts
The Supreme Court’s ruling blocks the lower court’s, allowing Texas to use the map, which provides advantages to Republican candidates, in upcoming elections including next year’s midterms.
The high court voted 6-3 along ideological lines to allow the new congressional map, with the court’s three liberal justices dissenting.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito said the motivation behind the congressional map’s creation was “partisan advantage pure and simple,” arguing the redistricting was not based on race.
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan dissented, saying the map violated “all our oft-repeated strictures about the use of race in districting” and that the Supreme Court’s ruling “disserves the millions of Texans whom the District Court found were assigned to their new districts based on their race.”
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Alito said that, like Texas’ new map, a new congressional map approved by California voters was also done for partisan advantage, potentially providing Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., with more firepower as he fights a Justice Department lawsuit challenging California’s own map, which seeks to offset Texas’ by shifting five seats toward Democrats.
