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In a per curiam order, the nation's top court has allowed Texas to use a newly configured congressional district plan that could add as many as five new conservative-tilting districts. The six-to-three decision, issued on Thursday, grants a request by the state to lift a district court's block that had struck down the redistricting plan in November.

Court's Rationale

The federal judge wrongly interjected itself into an active primary campaign, causing considerable confusion and upsetting the sensitive balance of power in elections, the justices wrote in justifying its decision.

The federal court had determined that Texas had probably classified voters by their race – a method known as illegal race-based districting – when it enacted the new maps. It had instructed the state to employ the districts drawn after the 2020 census for the forthcoming election.

Sharp Dissent

Through a forcefully written dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the court's decision. She argued that it disrespected the work of the lower court, noting that its decision was crafted by a judge nominated by ex-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 dissent supported by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Kagan added, Today's ruling solidifies that Texas's new map, with all its boosted political tilt, will dictate next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas residents, unjustly, will be grouped in electoral districts based on their race. And that result, as this court has declared year in and year out, is a infraction of the U.S. Constitution.

Countrywide Redistricting Struggle

This decision is part of a nationwide contest over the redistricting of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in campaigns to reshape the U.S. House map to protect a slim Republican majority. Ordinarily, map-drawing happens after a ten-year survey. Yet the decision by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a bold off-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer triggered a wave among other states.

GOP lawmakers in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also enacted redistricting plans that might create a number of additional Republican-leaning seats. Democratic lawmakers, for their part, have responded with their own plans in including California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those projected gains.

Political Responses

Lone Star State AG hailed the supreme court ruling. In a comment, he said the order defended Texas's basic authority to draw a map that secures representation aligned with his party. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he added.

In contrast, Democratic representatives decried 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.

Another senior Democratic figure stated the court had another time shredded its standing 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.