🔗 Share this article Supreme Court Backs Revised Lone Star State Congressional Districts. Via an unattributed order, the nation's top court permitted Texas to implement a newly configured congressional map that could add several five new Republican-leaning districts. The six-to-three order, released on Thursday, grants a request by the state to lift a lower court's ruling that had invalidated the boundaries in November. Justices' Rationale The lower court improperly inserted itself into an ongoing primary campaign, causing significant confusion and disturbing the fine federal-state balance in elections, the justices wrote in justifying its decision. The federal court had previously found that Texas had likely classified voters by their race – a act known as racial gerrymandering – when it enacted the redistricting plan. It had instructed the state to revert to the maps created after the 2020 census for the next year's election. Sharp Dissenting Opinion In a sharply worded objection, Justice Elena Kagan objected to the court's decision. She argued that it disregarded the work of the lower court, observing that its opinion was written by a judge selected 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 stated in a dissent joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Kagan added, Today's ruling guarantees that Texas's new map, with all its boosted favoritism, will dictate next year's elections. And it means that many Texas residents, without justification, will be sorted in electoral districts due to their race. And that result, as this court has declared year in and year out, is a infraction of the law of the land. Countrywide Map-Drawing Fight This decision comes amid a national battle over the redistricting of electoral maps. Texas is a crucial component in campaigns to transform the U.S. House map to protect a slim Republican hold. Usually, redistricting takes place after a new decade's census. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to initiate a brazen mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer set off a series of events among other states. Republicans in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also enacted redistricting plans that are estimated to yield a number of more Republican-leaning seats. Democratic lawmakers, for their part, have countered with revised boundaries in including California and Virginia, which could offset those projected gains. Political Reactions Lone Star State top lawyer welcomed the High Court's decision. In a statement, he said the order protected Texas's fundamental right to draw a map that secures representation aligned with the GOP. We are setting the precedent for restoring our country, through each electoral district and individual state, he remarked. In contrast, Democratic leaders lamented the ruling. The Court's approval of this extreme, racially gerrymandered Texas GOP map is profoundly disappointing, said the chair of a major Democratic campaign committee. A senior House figure argued the court had yet again damaged its legitimacy by approving a race-based map. Tonight's ruling by far-right justices on the supreme court is further proof that the extremists will do anything to rig the midterm elections. The gerrymandered Texas congressional map is a partisan and racially discriminatory power grab designed to subvert the will of the voters – particularly in Black and Latino communities, he stated.