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Through a per curiam order, the highest judicial body has allowed Texas to use a redrawn congressional district plan that could add as many as five additional conservative-tilting districts. The 6-3 order, handed down on Thursday, approves a petition by the state to overturn a district court's block that had invalidated the new map in November.

Justices' Rationale

The federal judge erroneously placed itself into an ongoing primary campaign, creating significant confusion and upsetting the sensitive balance of power in elections, the supreme court said in detailing its decision.

That lower court had previously found that Texas had likely grouped voters based on their race – a practice known as illegal race-based districting – when it adopted the new maps. It had ordered the state to use the boundaries created after the last decennial survey for the forthcoming election.

Sharp Dissenting Opinion

Through a sharply worded objection, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the court's decision. She contended that it disregarded the work of the district court, observing that its opinion was crafted by a judge selected 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 argued in a opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Kagan added, Today's ruling ensures that Texas's new map, with all its enhanced partisan advantage, will govern next year's elections. And it means that many Texas voters, without justification, will be grouped in electoral districts based on their race. And that result, as this court has stated year in and year out, is a violation of the constitution.

National Map-Drawing Fight

The court's action comes amid a countrywide battle over the remapping of electoral maps. Texas is a crucial component in efforts to reshape the U.S. House map to bolster a narrow Republican control. Typically, boundary revision happens after a ten-year survey. Yet the decision by Texas Republicans to initiate a brazen off-cycle redistricting earlier this year set off a series of events among other states.

Republicans in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also enacted new maps that might create several additional GOP-friendly seats. The opposition, for their part, have pushed back with new maps in including California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those projected gains.

Political Responses

The Texas AG welcomed the High Court's decision. In a comment, he said the order protected Texas's basic authority to draw a map that guarantees electoral outcomes supportive of Republicans. We are setting the precedent for restoring our country, through each electoral district and individual state, he remarked.

Conversely, opposition party officials criticized the decision. It is deeply disheartening that the Court has endorsed this severely racially gerrymandered plan from Texas Republicans, said the head of a major party election organization.

A leading House figure said the court had another time shredded its standing by upholding a racially gerrymandered 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 added.