Republicans are expressing relief, based on their initial reads of a splintered Supreme Court decision, that the justices have blessed their party’s mid-decade redrawing of Texas’s 23 congressional districts that padded Republicans’ U.S. House majority by six seats.
Democrats had held out some hope that the Supreme Court would strike down the gerrymandered map, improving their chances of gaining the 15 seats they need to recapture the House majority. Instead, a divided court rejected Democratic appellants’ claim that Texas Republicans’ partisanship in redrawing the state’s congressional map in 2003 rendered it unconstitutional. They stopped short of broadly declaring that partisan gerrymandering is never grounds for judicial review, as Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas hold. The court also upheld a state’s right to redraw districts at mid-decade; typically, redistricting is done once a decade in states, after the nation’s decennial census.
The ruling could be a green light to political parties elsewhere that gain power at mid-decade and then want to draw new maps to solidify their legislative majorities.
In a limited victory for the appellants, the court did find that the Texas Republicans violated the federal Voting Rights Act by drawing lines for a suburban San Antonio congressional district that shortchanged Hispanic residents in the process of making it more Republican-leaning; a separate Dallas-Fort Worth area district passed court muster. The south Texas district will have to be redrawn, which in turn could affect nearby districts. It currently is represented by Republican Rep. Henry Bonilla. After winning re-election, Bonilla in early 2005 led House Republicans’ effort to change their rules so a party leader wouldn’t have to forfeit the job if indicted—a bid to help House Majority Tom DeLay of Texas, who’d engineered the remapping.
The Supreme Court’s decision is the culmination of one of the hardest fought redistricting battles in history. It indirectly led to Mr. DeLay’s subsequent indictment and recent resignation.
After the 2000 census, the Texas Legislature deadlocked over redistricting and a court drew the congressional map for the 2002 elections. DeLay faces trial this fall in Austin on charges that he illegally funneled corporate funds to Texas Republican candidates, who in 2002 won control of the state legislature for the first time in history. The new majority in 2003 scrapped the court-drawn map and ultimately drew one far more favorable to Republicans; state Democrats went so far as to flee the state to prevent a legislative quorum in their unsuccessful effort to stop Republicans.
State and national Republicans reaped their reward in the 2004 elections: Texas’s congressional delegation went from 17 Democrats and 15 Republicans, to 21 Republicans and 11 Democrats. Republicans’ six-seat gain included five new Republicans and longtime Democratic Rep. Ralph Hall, who switched parties. – Jackie Calmes From The Wall Street Journal
Read the text of the high court’s decision:
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/05pdf/05-204.pdf 
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