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Via an unattributed order, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted Texas to employ a newly configured congressional map that may create up to five new GOP-friendly districts. The 6-3 decision, issued on Thursday, grants a petition by the state to lift a lower court's injunction that had rejected the boundaries in November.

Justices' Explanation

The lower court wrongly interjected itself into an ongoing primary campaign, creating significant confusion and upsetting the delicate equilibrium in elections, the order stated in explaining its ruling.

The federal court had determined that Texas had likely classified voters according to their race – a act known as illegal race-based districting – when it passed the redistricting plan. It had instructed the state to employ the maps drawn after the most recent national count for the next year's election.

Sharp Opposition

Through a strongly worded dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan objected to the court's ruling. She argued that it disregarded the work of the district court, noting that its decision was actually authored by a judge selected by former 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 supported by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The justice went on, Today's ruling guarantees that Texas's new map, with all its boosted partisan advantage, will control next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas voters, unjustly, will be grouped in electoral districts because of their race. And that result, as this court has declared repeatedly, is a infraction of the law of the land.

National Redistricting Fight

The court's action is part of a countrywide fight over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in efforts to alter the U.S. House map to protect a fragile Republican control. Ordinarily, map-drawing takes place after a new decade's census. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to proceed with a brazen mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer set off a chain reaction among other states.

GOP lawmakers in including North Carolina and Missouri have also enacted new maps that might create a number of more Republican-leaning seats. Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, have pushed back with their own plans in states like California and Virginia, which could offset those projected gains.

Partisan Responses

The Texas attorney general welcomed the High Court's decision. In a comment, he said the order protected Texas's basic authority to draw a map that ensures electoral outcomes aligned with his party. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he stated.

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

Another senior House leader stated the court had once again eroded its credibility 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.