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Via an per curiam order, the nation's top court permitted Texas to employ a revised congressional district plan that may create several five new GOP-friendly districts. The 6-3 decision, issued on Thursday, approves a request by the state to lift a federal judge's ruling that had invalidated the new map in November.

Justices' Reasoning

The lower court wrongly interjected itself into an active primary campaign, causing significant confusion and disrupting the sensitive balance of power in elections, the supreme court said in detailing its action.

That lower court had determined that Texas had likely grouped voters based on their race – a practice known as racial gerrymandering – when it enacted the new maps. It had mandated the state to revert to the boundaries established after the most recent national count for the upcoming election.

Strong Dissenting Opinion

With a strongly worded dissent, Justice Elena Kagan objected to the court's action. She argued that it disrespected the work of the lower court, observing that its opinion was written by a judge appointed 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 stated in a dissent joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She continued, Today's ruling ensures that Texas's new map, with all its boosted partisan advantage, will dictate next year's elections. And it ensures that many Texas voters, without justification, will be grouped in electoral districts because of their race. And that result, as this court has declared consistently, is a breach of the U.S. Constitution.

Countrywide Map-Drawing Battle

The court's action occurs during a national contest over the remapping of electoral maps. Texas is a crucial component in pushes 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 decision by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a bold mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer set off a series of events among other states.

Conservative legislators in including North Carolina and Missouri have also enacted redistricting plans that could add a number of more Republican-leaning seats. Democratic lawmakers, for their part, have countered with their own plans in including California and Virginia, which could offset those potential gains.

Political Reactions

Lone Star State AG praised the supreme court ruling. In a comment, he said the order defended Texas's prerogative to draw a map that guarantees electoral outcomes aligned with his party. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he added.

On the other hand, opposition party leaders decried the ruling. The Court's approval of this extreme, racially gerrymandered Texas GOP map is profoundly disappointing, said the chair of a major Democratic election organization.

Another leading House figure said the court had another time shredded its credibility by upholding a racially gerrymandered 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.