Supreme Court backs Texas’ GOP-friendly congressional map

The Supreme Court on Monday erased a lower court ruling that had found Texas’ new congressional district map to be an illegal racial gerrymander.

The justices issued a brief order disposing of the case, saying the district court was reversed. The justices pointed back to the reasoning they gave late last year in allowing the map to remain in effect for this November’s elections.

Republicans hope the map will net the GOP five seats in the state and help maintain the party’s control of the House.

The high court’s three Democrat-appointed justices noted their dissent from Monday’s decision, just as they did in last year’s preliminary ruling.

Texas redrew its map last year at the urging of President Trump. A core goal of the redraw was to erase several seats that were crafted to give minorities extra consideration in voting.

A district court found the redraw to be a violation of the Constitution, saying the state focused too heavily on racial lines when it sliced out districts with heavy Black and Hispanic populations.

But the high court, in last year’s ruling allowing the maps to take effect, said the district judge didn’t give Texas lawmakers the benefit of “good faith.” The justices also said the lower court never produced an alternative map that could have met the state’s partisan goals without dismantling the majority-minority districts.

Texas’s redistricting set off a chain reaction of mid-decade map redraws and legal challenges, culminating in Virginia’s narrow vote last week to ditch its previous map — one of the fairest in the nation — and replace it with the most partisan gerrymander of any large state.

That map still must survive legal challenges.