The Supreme Court’s order on the Texas redistricting cases may be much ado about nothing. What the Court did is send the cases back to the district court for reconsideration in light of Vieth v. Jubelirer, a decision from last term. Basically, the Court punted on deciding these cases in favor of having the lower court take into account the Court’s most recent pronouncement on the issue. The order has no effect on the districts for this year’s Congressional elections, and does not augur Court approval or disapproval of Texas’ district lines. There’s additional commentary on the order here and here.