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In a unattributed decision, the nation's top court has allowed Texas to employ a revised congressional map that may create as many as five new conservative-tilting districts. The 6-3 order, released on Thursday, upholds a appeal by the state to lift a lower court's ruling that had rejected the boundaries in November.

Court's Explanation

The lower court improperly inserted itself into an ongoing primary campaign, creating significant confusion and disrupting the delicate federal-state balance in elections, the justices wrote in explaining its ruling.

That lower court had previously found that Texas had probably sorted voters according to their race – a method known as racial gerrymandering – when it adopted the redistricting plan. It had ordered the state to employ the boundaries drawn after the last decennial survey for the next year's election.

Strong Dissenting Opinion

Through a strongly worded dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan objected to the majority's ruling. She contended that it disregarded the work of the lower court, noting that its ruling was actually authored 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 opinion supported by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She continued, This court's stay ensures that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its enhanced favoritism, will dictate next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas residents, without justification, will be placed in electoral districts based on their race. And that result, as this court has pronounced year in and year out, is a infraction of the U.S. Constitution.

National Map-Drawing Battle

The court's action comes amid a nationwide battle over the remapping of electoral maps. Texas is an essential part in campaigns to transform the U.S. House map to protect a slim Republican majority. Typically, map-drawing occurs after a ten-year survey. Yet the action by Texas Republicans to proceed with a bold mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer triggered a series of events among other states.

Republicans in including North Carolina and Missouri have also enacted new maps that could add a number of more conservative seats. Democrats, in response, have countered with revised boundaries in states like California and Virginia, which could offset those potential gains.

Partisan Responses

The Texas attorney general welcomed the supreme court ruling. In a release, he said the order upheld Texas's fundamental right to draw a map that secures representation favorable to Republicans. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he added.

Conversely, Democratic officials lamented the ruling. It's incredibly disappointing that the Court has rubber stamped a map enacted by Texas Republicans which, simply put, is an extreme, racially gerrymandered map, said the chair of a major Democratic election organization.

A leading House figure stated the court had yet again eroded 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.