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Through a per curiam order, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted Texas to use a newly configured congressional district plan that may create up to five new GOP-friendly districts. The six-to-three decision, issued on Thursday, approves a petition by the state to set aside a district court's ruling that had struck down the redistricting plan in November.

Justices' Explanation

The lower court wrongly interjected itself into an ongoing primary campaign, creating much confusion and disrupting the sensitive equilibrium in elections, the justices wrote in detailing its decision.

That lower court had determined that Texas had likely sorted voters by their race – a method known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it passed the redistricting plan. It had mandated the state to employ the districts drawn after the last decennial survey for the upcoming election.

Strong Dissenting Opinion

With a forcefully written objection, Justice Elena Kagan objected to the court's ruling. She contended that it disrespected the work of the district court, pointing out that its opinion was crafted 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 dissent supported by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Kagan added, Today's ruling solidifies that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its increased political tilt, will govern next year's elections. And it guarantees that many Texas residents, without justification, will be sorted in electoral districts due to their race. And that result, as this court has stated year in and year out, is a breach of the U.S. Constitution.

Countrywide Redistricting Struggle

The court's action occurs during a national battle over the remapping of electoral maps. Texas is an essential part in pushes to transform the U.S. House map to secure a fragile Republican hold. Typically, redistricting happens after a new decade's census. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to initiate a bold mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer triggered a wave among other states.

GOP lawmakers in including North Carolina and Missouri have also approved redistricting plans that could add a number of additional GOP-friendly seats. The opposition, in response, have pushed back with their own plans in states like California and Virginia, which might neutralize those potential gains.

Political Responses

Lone Star State attorney general hailed the supreme court ruling. In a statement, he said the order protected Texas's basic authority to draw a map that guarantees electoral outcomes supportive of Republicans. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he stated.

On the other hand, Democratic representatives lamented 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.

A senior Democratic figure argued the court had yet again eroded its credibility by approving a racially gerrymandered 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 concluded.