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Via an per curiam decision, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted Texas to use a newly configured congressional map that may create up to five additional GOP-friendly districts. The 6-3 order, issued on Thursday, grants a appeal by the state to overturn a federal judge's block that had struck down the redistricting plan in November.

Court's Rationale

The federal judge improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, generating much confusion and disrupting the fine federal-state balance in elections, the order stated in detailing its action.

The federal court had earlier ruled that Texas had likely sorted voters according to their race – a practice known as illegal race-based districting – when it passed the boundaries. It had mandated the state to revert to the maps drawn after the last decennial survey for the forthcoming election.

Stinging Dissenting Opinion

With a forcefully written dissent, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the majority's ruling. She stated that it disrespected the work of the lower court, pointing out that its opinion was actually authored by a judge appointed by ex-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 stated in a opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She continued, The majority's order ensures that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its increased political tilt, will control next year's elections. And it guarantees that many Texas citizens, for no good reason, 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 violation of the U.S. Constitution.

National Redistricting Battle

This decision comes amid a nationwide contest over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is an essential part in efforts to reshape the U.S. House map to protect a slim Republican hold. Usually, map-drawing occurs after a new decade's census. Yet the action by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a brazen mid-cycle redistricting earlier this year set off a series of events among other states.

Republicans in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also passed redistricting plans that might create a number of additional Republican-leaning seats. Democratic lawmakers, for their part, have responded with revised boundaries in states like California and Virginia, which might neutralize those potential gains.

Political Reactions

The Texas AG hailed the supreme court ruling. In a statement, he said the order defended Texas's prerogative to draw a map that ensures electoral outcomes supportive of the GOP. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he added.

On the other hand, Democratic representatives criticized the decision. 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 senior House figure said the court had once again shredded its legitimacy 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 stated.