Ross Ramsey for the Texas Tribune:

The court ruled that Texas “may” use population as the basis for the size of its legislative districts. It didn’t say it must, however — that’s not the question the court was asked.

Want to squint at that? The court left open the possibility that states could legally use another method, like drawing districts that have unequal numbers of residents but equal numbers of eligible voters. All the state has to do is “use any neutral nondiscriminatory population baseline, including total population, when drawing state and local legislative districts,” Ginsburg wrote.

It boils down to a question of which differences to correct: Is it better to give each voter an equal say in who represents them, or to give each resident equal access to an officeholder who has been elected? Is this about citizens, voters or residents? For congressional districts, it’s the third group: Per the U.S. Constitution, each of a state’s congressional districts has to have the same number of people in it when the political maps are drawn.