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In a unattributed order, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted Texas to employ a newly configured congressional boundary scheme that is projected to include several five new Republican-leaning districts. The 6-3 ruling, released on Thursday, approves a request by the state to overturn a federal judge's ruling that had invalidated the redistricting plan in November.

Justices' Explanation

The federal judge erroneously placed itself into an active primary campaign, generating much confusion and disturbing the fine balance of power in elections, the supreme court said in justifying its ruling.

The district court had earlier ruled that Texas had likely classified voters according to their race – a act known as racial gerrymandering – when it passed the redistricting plan. It had instructed the state to revert to the maps created after the 2020 census for the next year's election.

Stinging Opposition

In a forcefully written dissent, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the court's action. She argued that it disregarded the work of the lower court, observing that its decision was actually authored by a judge selected by ex-President Donald Trump.

While our court is superior in jurisdiction, we are not superior in making these fact-intensive determinations, Kagan stated in a opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Kagan added, This court's stay guarantees that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its boosted favoritism, will control next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas voters, for no good reason, will be sorted in electoral districts based on their race. And that result, as this court has pronounced year in and year out, is a violation of the constitution.

National Map-Drawing Battle

The court's action occurs during a national fight over the redistricting of electoral maps. Texas is a crucial component in campaigns to transform the U.S. House map to bolster a narrow Republican hold. Usually, map-drawing occurs after a new decade's census. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a brazen mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer triggered a series of events among other states.

Conservative legislators in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also passed redistricting plans that are estimated to yield several additional Republican-leaning seats. Democrats, in response, have responded with new maps in states like California and Virginia, which might neutralize those projected gains.

Political Responses

The Texas AG praised the supreme court ruling. In a release, he said the order upheld Texas's basic authority to draw a map that secures electoral outcomes aligned with Republicans. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he stated.

Conversely, Democratic leaders criticized the outcome. The Court's approval of this extreme, racially gerrymandered Texas GOP map is profoundly disappointing, said the leader of a major party election organization.

A senior Democratic leader stated the court had another time damaged its legitimacy by upholding a race-based map. This decision from the Court's far-right bloc proves extremists are willing to rig elections. The Texas map is a discriminatory power grab targeting Black and Latino voters, he stated.