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In a per curiam decision, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Texas to employ a redrawn congressional district plan that could add several five new GOP-friendly districts. The 6-3 ruling, released on Thursday, grants a appeal by the state to overturn a federal judge's ruling that had struck down the redistricting plan in November.

Justices' Explanation

The district court wrongly interjected itself into an active primary campaign, creating considerable confusion and disrupting the fine balance of power in elections, the justices wrote in justifying its decision.

That lower court had previously found that Texas had likely grouped voters by their race – a method known as illegal race-based districting – when it adopted the boundaries. It had instructed the state to revert to the districts created after the 2020 census for the forthcoming election.

Strong Dissent

Through a strongly worded objection, Justice Elena Kagan took issue with the majority's decision. She contended that it disregarded the work of the district court, pointing out that its opinion was actually authored by a judge selected by former President Donald Trump.

We are a higher court than the district court, but we are not a better one when it comes to making such a fact-based decision, Kagan argued in a opinion co-signed by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The justice went on, Today's ruling solidifies that Texas's new map, with all its enhanced favoritism, will govern next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas residents, without justification, will be grouped in electoral districts due to their race. And that result, as this court has stated year in and year out, is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Countrywide Redistricting Fight

The court's action is part of a nationwide battle over the remapping of electoral maps. Texas is an essential part in campaigns to alter the U.S. House map to secure a fragile Republican majority. Ordinarily, redistricting happens after a new decade's census. Yet the decision by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a aggressive mid-cycle redistricting earlier this year triggered a wave among other states.

GOP lawmakers in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also enacted new maps that are estimated to yield a number of additional GOP-friendly seats. Democratic lawmakers, for their part, have responded with revised boundaries in states like California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those projected gains.

Partisan Reactions

The Texas top lawyer welcomed the supreme court ruling. In a statement, he said the order defended Texas's prerogative to draw a map that ensures 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 leaders lamented the ruling. It is deeply disheartening that the Court has endorsed this severely racially gerrymandered plan from Texas Republicans, said the leader of a major party election organization.

A leading House figure stated the court had another time shredded its legitimacy by upholding 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 added.