🔗 Share this article Supreme Court Upholds Newly Drawn Texas House Maps. Via an per curiam order, the highest judicial body permitted Texas to use a newly configured congressional district plan that could add as many as five new Republican-leaning districts. The 6-3 decision, handed down on Thursday, upholds a petition by the state to set aside a federal judge's injunction that had rejected the new map in November. Justices' Rationale The district court improperly inserted itself into an ongoing primary campaign, causing significant confusion and disrupting the delicate balance of power in elections, the supreme court said in detailing its ruling. That lower court had earlier ruled that Texas had probably classified voters according to their race – a method known as racial gerrymandering – when it adopted the boundaries. It had mandated the state to use the boundaries drawn after the 2020 census for the next year's election. Stinging Dissent With a forcefully written dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan objected to the court's ruling. She stated that it disrespected the work of the district court, pointing out that its opinion was crafted by a judge appointed 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 wrote in a opinion supported by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The justice went on, This court's stay ensures that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its increased partisan advantage, will control next year's elections. And it guarantees that many Texas citizens, without justification, will be placed in electoral districts because of their race. And that result, as this court has declared consistently, is a infraction of the law of the land. Countrywide Redistricting Fight This decision occurs during a national fight over the redistricting of electoral maps. Texas is an essential part in campaigns to transform the U.S. House map to protect a slim Republican control. Ordinarily, boundary revision happens after a decennial population count. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a bold mid-cycle redistricting earlier this year sparked a chain reaction among other states. Republicans in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also approved redistricting plans that are estimated to yield several additional GOP-friendly seats. The opposition, meanwhile, have pushed back with their own plans in states like California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those projected gains. Political Reactions Lone Star State attorney general hailed the High Court's decision. In a comment, he said the order defended Texas's fundamental right to draw a map that guarantees representation aligned with the GOP. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he stated. In contrast, opposition party representatives lamented the outcome. The Court's approval of this extreme, racially gerrymandered Texas GOP map is profoundly disappointing, said the chair of a major Democratic election organization. A leading House leader argued the court had yet again shredded its legitimacy by upholding a discriminatory 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 stated.