🔗 Share this article Supreme Court Backs Revised Lone Star State Congressional Electoral Boundaries. Via an per curiam order, the nation's top court permitted Texas to employ a newly configured congressional boundary scheme that is projected to include up to five new Republican-leaning districts. The 6-3 decision, released on Thursday, approves a petition by the state to set aside a district court's block that had struck down the redistricting plan in November. Court's Reasoning The federal judge wrongly interjected itself into an ongoing primary campaign, generating much confusion and upsetting the fine balance of power in elections, the justices wrote in detailing its action. The district court had determined that Texas had probably sorted voters according to their race – a method known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it enacted the boundaries. It had instructed the state to employ the maps established after the last decennial survey for the forthcoming election. Strong Opposition Through a forcefully written objection, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the majority's action. She argued that it undermined the work of the lower court, pointing out that its decision was crafted by a judge selected by former President Donald Trump. While our court is superior in jurisdiction, we are not superior in making these fact-intensive determinations, Kagan argued in a dissent joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The justice went on, This court's stay ensures that Texas's new map, with all its boosted partisan advantage, will dictate next year's elections. And it means that many Texas residents, for no good reason, will be grouped in electoral districts based on their race. And that result, as this court has stated year in and year out, is a infraction of the U.S. Constitution. National Map-Drawing Struggle The ruling is part of a countrywide fight over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is a crucial component in pushes to transform the U.S. House map to secure a slim Republican hold. Ordinarily, redistricting occurs after a decennial population count. Yet the decision by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a brazen off-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer set off a chain reaction among other states. Republicans in including North Carolina and Missouri have also approved redistricting plans that could add several more GOP-friendly seats. The opposition, for their part, have responded with their own plans in including California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those potential gains. Partisan Responses Lone Star State attorney general welcomed the High Court's decision. In a comment, he said the order defended Texas's basic authority to draw a map that guarantees electoral outcomes favorable to Republicans. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he stated. In contrast, opposition party officials decried the ruling. It's incredibly disappointing that the Court has rubber stamped a map enacted by Texas Republicans which, simply put, is an extreme, racially gerrymandered map, said the head of a major Democratic election organization. Another senior House figure said the court had once again 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 added.