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Via an unattributed ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Texas to use a newly configured congressional map that is projected to include several five new conservative-tilting districts. The 6-3 ruling, released on Thursday, approves a petition by the state to set aside a lower court's ruling that had rejected the redistricting plan in November.

Justices' Reasoning

The district court improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, generating considerable confusion and disrupting the sensitive balance of power in elections, the supreme court said in explaining its action.

That lower court had determined that Texas had probably grouped voters by their race – a method known as illegal race-based districting – when it adopted the redistricting plan. It had mandated the state to use the boundaries drawn after the last decennial survey for the upcoming election.

Strong Dissenting Opinion

Through a sharply worded objection, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the majority's action. She contended that it undermined the work of the district court, observing that its ruling was crafted by a judge appointed by former President Donald Trump.

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

The justice went on, Today's ruling ensures that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its increased partisan advantage, will control next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas voters, without justification, will be sorted in electoral districts because of their race. And that result, as this court has declared repeatedly, is a breach of the U.S. Constitution.

Countrywide Redistricting Struggle

The ruling occurs during a nationwide fight over the redistricting of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in campaigns to transform the U.S. House map to protect a fragile Republican hold. Typically, redistricting takes place after a new decade's census. Yet the decision by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a aggressive off-cycle redistricting earlier this year triggered a chain reaction among other states.

GOP lawmakers in including North Carolina and Missouri have also approved redistricting plans that are estimated to yield a number of additional conservative seats. Democrats, for their part, have countered with revised boundaries in including California and Virginia, which could offset those projected gains.

Partisan Responses

Lone Star State AG welcomed the High Court's decision. In a statement, he said the order defended Texas's prerogative to draw a map that guarantees representation aligned with Republicans. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he added.

On the other hand, opposition party representatives decried the decision. 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 head of a major Democratic election organization.

A leading Democratic figure argued the court had yet again eroded its standing by approving a discriminatory 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.