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Through a per curiam ruling, the nation's top court permitted Texas to implement a revised congressional boundary scheme that is projected to include as many as five additional GOP-friendly districts. The six-to-three ruling, handed down on Thursday, approves a request by the state to overturn a district court's block that had invalidated the boundaries in November.

Justices' Explanation

The federal judge improperly inserted itself into an ongoing primary campaign, generating much confusion and disturbing the sensitive federal-state balance in elections, the supreme court said in justifying its ruling.

That lower court had previously found that Texas had likely sorted voters based on their race – a act known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it enacted the redistricting plan. It had ordered the state to use the boundaries created after the most recent national count for the next year's election.

Sharp Dissent

Through a strongly worded dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the court's decision. She argued that it disrespected the work of the lower court, noting that its decision was written by a judge nominated by former President Donald Trump.

Our position is above the district court, but our capability is not greater for resolving such fact-driven issues, Kagan wrote in a opinion supported by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The justice went on, Today's ruling ensures that Texas's new map, with all its enhanced favoritism, will govern next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas voters, for no good reason, will be grouped in electoral districts due to their race. And that result, as this court has declared repeatedly, is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

National Redistricting Fight

The court's action comes amid a countrywide battle over the redistricting of electoral maps. Texas is a crucial component in campaigns to reshape the U.S. House map to secure a slim Republican control. Usually, boundary revision takes place after a decennial population count. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to proceed with a bold off-cycle redistricting earlier this year sparked a wave among other states.

Conservative legislators in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also approved new maps that could add a number of additional Republican-leaning seats. The opposition, meanwhile, have countered with new maps in states like California and Virginia, which could offset those potential gains.

Partisan Reactions

The Texas top lawyer welcomed the High Court's decision. In a release, he said the order protected Texas's prerogative to draw a map that guarantees electoral outcomes aligned with Republicans. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he added.

In contrast, Democratic officials decried 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 campaign committee.

Another top Democratic leader argued the court had another time eroded its credibility by rubber-stamping 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.