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Through a per curiam ruling, the nation's top court permitted Texas to employ a revised congressional map that may create up to five new conservative-tilting districts. The six-to-three ruling, handed down on Thursday, upholds a request by the state to overturn a district court's block that had invalidated the boundaries in November.

Court's Rationale

The federal judge improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, creating significant confusion and upsetting the sensitive federal-state balance in elections, the order stated in detailing its ruling.

The federal court had determined that Texas had probably sorted voters based on their race – a method known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it enacted the redistricting plan. It had ordered the state to employ the maps drawn after the last decennial survey for the forthcoming election.

Sharp Opposition

With a forcefully written dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the majority's decision. She stated that it disregarded the work of the district court, pointing out that its ruling 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 dissent supported by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She continued, Today's ruling guarantees that Texas's new map, with all its enhanced favoritism, will govern next year's elections. And it means that many Texas voters, without justification, will be placed in electoral districts due to their race. And that result, as this court has declared year in and year out, is a violation of the law of the land.

Countrywide Map-Drawing Fight

The court's action comes amid a national battle over the remapping of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in campaigns to transform the U.S. House map to protect a fragile Republican control. Usually, redistricting happens after a decennial population count. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a bold mid-cycle redistricting earlier this year set off a series of events among other states.

Conservative legislators in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also approved redistricting plans that are estimated to yield several additional GOP-friendly seats. Democrats, for their part, have pushed back with their own plans in including California and Virginia, which might neutralize those potential gains.

Partisan Responses

The Texas top lawyer hailed the supreme court ruling. In a statement, he said the order protected Texas's basic authority to draw a map that secures electoral outcomes favorable to Republicans. Our state is leading the charge to reclaim the nation, one district and one state at a time, he added.

In contrast, Democratic officials lamented the decision. The Court's approval of this extreme, racially gerrymandered Texas GOP map is profoundly disappointing, said the leader of a major party campaign committee.

Another senior Democratic leader said the court had yet again eroded its legitimacy 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 concluded.