One of President Donald Trump's only concrete achievements as president, at least so far, was successfully appointing Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court.
It appears that that single choice has paid significant political dividends for the Republican Party.
On Tuesday night, the Supreme Court ruled that Texas should not be required to promptly redraw federal and state legislative districts that a federal court had found violated the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act, according to The New York Times. The decision was rendered by a 5-4 margin, with the conservative judges (John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch) in the majority.
The court's one-paragraph explanation did not provide any reasoning for their decision, although it noted that the four liberal judges (Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg) disagreed with the decision. The court blocked the ruling of a three-judge panel in Texas. Those judges overturned two legislative districts drawn up after the 2010 census, saying the districts were deliberately gerrymandered to deny minority voters "of their opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice."
In a decision that was also issued without comment, the Supreme Court blocked another federal appeals court ruling — this one about Trump's travel ban, according to CNN. Five justices came to the decision that approximately 24,000 refugees who had agreements with resettlement organizations to come to the United States couldn't do so until a decision has been made about the legality of Trump's travel ban. The decision could indicate a desire to uphold the travel ban — or to simply maintain the status quo until the court can hear the case in full in October.
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