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In a per curiam order, the highest judicial body has allowed Texas to implement a newly configured congressional district plan that may create several five new GOP-friendly districts. The six-to-three order, handed down on Thursday, approves a petition by the state to set aside a lower court's ruling that had rejected the redistricting plan in November.

Court's Explanation

The district court improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, generating considerable confusion and disrupting the sensitive federal-state balance in elections, the justices wrote in detailing its decision.

The federal court had earlier ruled that Texas had likely classified voters according to their race – a method known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it enacted the new maps. It had instructed the state to revert to the maps created after the 2020 census for the forthcoming election.

Sharp Dissent

Through a strongly worded objection, Justice Elena Kagan objected to the court's decision. She contended that it undermined the work of the lower court, pointing out that its decision was written by a judge nominated 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 dissent co-signed by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She continued, This court's stay solidifies that Texas's new map, with all its enhanced favoritism, will control next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas residents, for no good reason, will be sorted in electoral districts due to their race. And that result, as this court has pronounced repeatedly, is a violation of the constitution.

National Redistricting Fight

This decision occurs during a nationwide contest over the redistricting of electoral maps. Texas is a crucial component in campaigns to transform the U.S. House map to secure a slim Republican hold. Ordinarily, redistricting happens after a new decade's census. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a aggressive off-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer sparked a chain reaction among other states.

GOP lawmakers in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also approved new maps that could add several additional conservative seats. The opposition, in response, have pushed back with revised boundaries in states like California and Virginia, which could offset those potential gains.

Political Responses

Lone Star State AG welcomed the High Court's decision. In a comment, he said the order upheld Texas's prerogative to draw a map that secures representation favorable to Republicans. Our state is leading the charge to reclaim the nation, one district and one state at a time, he stated.

In contrast, Democratic officials lamented the decision. It is deeply disheartening that the Court has endorsed this severely racially gerrymandered plan from Texas Republicans, said the chair of a major party election organization.

A senior Democratic figure argued the court had another time damaged its standing by upholding a race-based 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.