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Via an unattributed order, the highest judicial body cleared the way for Texas to use a newly configured congressional map that is projected to include several five new GOP-friendly districts. The 6-3 order, released on Thursday, upholds a appeal by the state to lift a lower court's ruling that had struck down the boundaries in November.

Court's Reasoning

The federal judge wrongly interjected itself into an active primary campaign, creating significant confusion and disturbing the sensitive federal-state balance in elections, the justices wrote in explaining its ruling.

The district court had determined that Texas had likely classified voters based on their race – a practice known as racial gerrymandering – when it enacted the redistricting plan. It had instructed the state to use the boundaries created after the last decennial survey for the upcoming election.

Sharp Dissent

With a strongly worded objection, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the court's decision. She contended that it undermined the work of the district court, noting that its opinion was crafted by a judge appointed by ex-President Donald Trump.

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

The justice went on, Today's ruling ensures that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its boosted political tilt, will control next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas residents, for no good reason, will be placed in electoral districts due to their race. And that result, as this court has stated consistently, is a infraction of the U.S. Constitution.

National Redistricting Struggle

The ruling occurs during a nationwide fight over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in efforts to reshape the U.S. House map to secure a slim Republican hold. Ordinarily, map-drawing takes place after a decennial population count. Yet the action by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a bold mid-cycle redistricting earlier this year set off a series of events among other states.

GOP lawmakers in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also approved redistricting plans that could add a number of more GOP-friendly seats. Democrats, for their part, have pushed back with their own plans in including California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those potential gains.

Partisan Responses

Lone Star State AG welcomed the High Court's decision. In a release, he said the order upheld Texas's prerogative to draw a map that ensures electoral outcomes supportive of the GOP. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he added.

Conversely, opposition party representatives lamented the outcome. It is deeply disheartening that the Court has endorsed this severely racially gerrymandered plan from Texas Republicans, said the head of a major party campaign committee.

Another senior House leader argued the court had another time shredded its legitimacy by rubber-stamping a racially gerrymandered map. The ruling demonstrates a willingness to subvert democracy. This Texas plan is a partisan, racially biased scheme to undermine voter will, especially in communities of color, he stated.