WASHINGTON – In a 5-4 decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government does not have the authority to block the election maps drawn up by state lawmakers, no matter how partisan the motivation behind the maps' composition might be.

Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's other conservatives said gerrymandered election maps created by North Carolina Republicans and Maryland Democrats are constitutional despite being drawn along partisan lines.

"We have no commission to allocate political power and influence in the absence of a constitutional directive or legal standards to guide us in the exercise of such authority," Roberts wrote for the majority. (starts on Page 6 below)

SCOTUS gerrymandering case:Supreme Court says federal courts cannot strike down partisan maps

Associate Justice Kagan delivered the dissent (starts on Page 40 below) and slammed the ruling, writing, "Of all the times to abandon the court's duty to declare the law, this was not the one.

"The practices challenged in these cases imperil our system of government," she said.

Read the full text of the decision here: