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Through a unattributed ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted Texas to employ a newly configured congressional map that may create up to five new GOP-friendly districts. The six-to-three decision, released on Thursday, upholds a request by the state to set aside a lower court's ruling that had struck down the new map in November.

Court's Explanation

The district court improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing considerable confusion and disturbing the fine balance of power in elections, the justices wrote in explaining its decision.

That lower court had determined that Texas had likely classified voters by their race – a act known as illegal race-based districting – when it adopted the boundaries. It had instructed the state to employ the maps drawn after the last decennial survey for the next year's election.

Stinging Dissent

Through a strongly worded objection, Justice Elena Kagan objected to the court's decision. She stated that it disrespected the work of the district court, pointing out that its ruling was actually authored by a judge appointed by ex-President Donald Trump.

While our court is superior in jurisdiction, we are not superior in making these fact-intensive determinations, Kagan argued in a opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The justice went on, This court's stay solidifies that Texas's new map, with all its boosted political tilt, will govern next year's elections. And it guarantees that many Texas residents, without justification, will be placed 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.

National Map-Drawing Struggle

This decision is part of a national contest over the remapping of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in efforts to reshape the U.S. House map to bolster a fragile Republican control. Ordinarily, map-drawing happens after a new decade's census. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a bold mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer triggered a chain reaction among other states.

GOP lawmakers in including North Carolina and Missouri have also passed redistricting plans that might create a number of more conservative seats. The opposition, for their part, have responded with their own plans in including California and Virginia, which might neutralize those potential gains.

Partisan Reactions

The Texas top lawyer praised the High Court's decision. In a statement, he said the order protected Texas's fundamental right to draw a map that guarantees electoral outcomes supportive of his party. We are setting the precedent for restoring our country, through each electoral district and individual state, he added.

Conversely, Democratic officials decried the outcome. It is deeply disheartening that the Court has endorsed this severely racially gerrymandered plan from Texas Republicans, said the chair of a major Democratic campaign committee.

A top Democratic figure stated the court had another time shredded its legitimacy 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 added.