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Via an per curiam ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted Texas to employ a redrawn congressional boundary scheme that could add as many as five new conservative-tilting districts. The six-to-three ruling, handed down on Thursday, upholds a request by the state to set aside a federal judge's ruling that had invalidated the redistricting plan in November.

Court's Explanation

The district court improperly inserted itself into an ongoing primary campaign, generating much confusion and upsetting the delicate equilibrium in elections, the supreme court said in explaining its action.

The district court had determined that Texas had probably classified voters by their race – a method known as illegal race-based districting – when it enacted the redistricting plan. It had ordered the state to revert to the districts created after the 2020 census for the forthcoming election.

Stinging Opposition

Through a strongly worded dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan took issue with the court's decision. She stated that it disregarded the work of the lower court, observing that its ruling was written by a judge nominated by former President Donald Trump.

Our position is above the district court, but our capability is not greater for resolving such fact-driven issues, 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 dictate next year's elections. And it guarantees that many Texas citizens, without justification, will be placed in electoral districts based on their race. And that result, as this court has declared repeatedly, is a violation of the constitution.

National Map-Drawing Battle

This decision occurs during a countrywide fight over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is a crucial component in campaigns to transform the U.S. House map to bolster a narrow Republican majority. Usually, redistricting occurs after a decennial population count. Yet the decision by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a aggressive mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer sparked a series of events among other states.

Conservative legislators in including North Carolina and Missouri have also approved redistricting plans that could add several more Republican-leaning seats. Democratic lawmakers, in response, have responded with their own plans in including California and Virginia, which might neutralize those potential gains.

Political Responses

The Texas top lawyer welcomed the High Court's decision. In a statement, he said the order protected Texas's basic authority to draw a map that ensures representation favorable to the GOP. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he remarked.

In contrast, opposition party leaders lamented the outcome. It is deeply disheartening that the Court has endorsed this severely racially gerrymandered plan from Texas Republicans, said the leader of a major Democratic campaign committee.

Another top Democratic figure said the court had once again eroded its credibility by upholding a race-based map. Tonight's ruling by far-right justices on the supreme court is further proof that the extremists will do anything to rig the midterm elections. The gerrymandered Texas congressional map is a partisan and racially discriminatory power grab designed to subvert the will of the voters – particularly in Black and Latino communities, he concluded.