WASHINGTON — On Monday, the US Supreme Court affirmed the redistricting of Texas’s congressional map by Republicans, a move that has sparked a nationwide gerrymandering spree.
Initially, a lower court had obstructed the map’s implementation. However, the Supreme Court intervened last year, temporarily allowing Texas to use the map by issuing a stay on the lower court’s decision.
This week, the Supreme Court finalized its position by dismissing the lower court’s attempt to block the map. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, all appointed by Democrats, dissented from the ruling.
The Supreme Court referenced its prior stay from December as the basis for their ruling, offering no further explanation.
Currently, Republicans hold 24 of Texas’s congressional seats, while Democrats have 13. The updated map could potentially increase the GOP’s advantage by up to five additional seats.
Democrats contend that the revised map, introduced last year, unlawfully dilutes their voting power by dispersing their voters too widely.
The League of United Latin American Citizens led the challenge against the GOP map, alleging that race was too much of a factor in the redistricting.
A three-judge panel on the US District Court of the Western District of Texas sided with the league in its earlier 2-1 decision.
But Republican-appointed US Surpeme Court Justice Samuel Alito had argued in his stay concurrence, which the high court cited Monday, that the lower court “failed to honor the presumption of legislative good faith” and that the plaintiffs failed to “produce a viable alternative map that met the State’s avowedly partisan goal.”
Traditionally, redistricting takes place every decade after a federal census. But a rare mid-decade redistricting race broke out after the new Texas map surfaced.
In response to Texas’s redistricting push, Dem California Gov. Gavin Newsom championed a referendum in the Golden State to neutralize the GOP’s potential gains in Congress.
Earlier this year, the nation’s top court rebuffed a challenge from a California GOP group against the measure.
Democrats recently notched a victory in Virginia when voters greenlit a referendum allowing the state legislature to put in place a map where they could gain up to four seats. That state’s highest court is weighing a GOP challenge to the move.
The GOP is also looking at redistricting opportunities in Florida and Mississippi in response.
