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In a unattributed order, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Texas to use a newly configured congressional district plan that may create as many as five additional conservative-tilting districts. The 6-3 order, released on Thursday, grants a request by the state to set aside a lower court's ruling that had rejected the redistricting plan in November.

Court's Reasoning

The district court erroneously placed itself into an active primary campaign, creating significant confusion and disturbing the fine balance of power in elections, the order stated in justifying its action.

The district court had previously found that Texas had likely grouped voters according to their race – a act known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it adopted the redistricting plan. It had ordered the state to employ the boundaries established after the 2020 census for the forthcoming election.

Sharp Opposition

Through a forcefully written objection, Justice Elena Kagan took issue with the court's decision. She stated that it undermined the work of the lower court, noting that its opinion was written by a judge appointed by ex-President Donald Trump.

While our court is superior in jurisdiction, we are not superior in making these fact-intensive determinations, Kagan wrote in a opinion co-signed by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She continued, Today's ruling ensures that Texas's new map, with all its boosted partisan advantage, will control next year's elections. And it means that many Texas residents, unjustly, will be sorted in electoral districts because of their race. And that result, as this court has stated year in and year out, is a violation of the constitution.

National Redistricting Battle

The ruling is part of a national contest over the remapping of electoral maps. Texas is an essential part in pushes to alter the U.S. House map to secure a narrow Republican hold. Usually, boundary revision occurs after a new decade's census. Yet the decision by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a bold mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer sparked a chain reaction among other states.

Republicans in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also approved redistricting plans that might create a number of more conservative seats. Democrats, for their part, have pushed back with their own plans in states like California and Virginia, which could offset those potential gains.

Political Reactions

Lone Star State attorney general welcomed the supreme court ruling. In a statement, he said the order upheld Texas's fundamental right to draw a map that secures electoral outcomes favorable to his party. We are setting the precedent for restoring our country, through each electoral district and individual state, he stated.

Conversely, opposition party officials decried the ruling. The Court's approval of this extreme, racially gerrymandered Texas GOP map is profoundly disappointing, said the chair of a major Democratic campaign committee.

A leading Democratic figure stated the court had another time shredded its standing by approving 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.