The Supreme Court Monday reversed a lower court decision that had invalidated a Republican effort in Texas to redraw congressional districts, meaning the new map can be used in this year’s midterm elections.
The ruling involves a 2025 plan that will likely give the GOP five more U.S. House members – at the expense of the Democrats.
The justices stated in the ruling, simply, “We reverse the District Court’s judgment.”
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented without opinion.
As the Gateway Pundit points out, Texas gained two new congressional seats following the 2020 census, bringing its total to 38.
Last year, the Republican-led legislature, at the behest of President Trump, redrew the congressional map. The plan was signed into law by Gov. Gregg Abbot in August.
The new map, known as Plan C2333, was explicitly designed to flip several Democratic-held districts by strategically adjusting boundaries while preserving or enhancing Republican majorities.
The effort resulted in several Democrat-dominated states working to redraw their own district lines, most recently in Virginia where voters recently approved a new map, which has also been challenged in the courts.
Other states where party-based redistricting has been tried include Utah, Missouri, Indiana and North Carolina.
