🔗 Share this article Nation's Highest Court Approves Revised Texas House Districts. In a per curiam order, the highest judicial body permitted Texas to employ a revised congressional map that could add several five additional GOP-friendly districts. The six-to-three decision, issued on Thursday, grants a request by the state to lift a federal judge's injunction that had struck down the redistricting plan in November. Justices' Explanation The federal judge erroneously placed itself into an active primary campaign, generating significant confusion and upsetting the delicate equilibrium in elections, the supreme court said in explaining its ruling. The district court had earlier ruled that Texas had probably classified voters according to their race – a practice known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it adopted the boundaries. It had mandated the state to revert to the maps established after the 2020 census for the next year's election. Stinging Dissenting Opinion In a strongly worded objection, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the court's decision. She contended that it undermined the work of the lower court, observing that its ruling was written by a judge selected 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 dissent co-signed by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. She continued, Today's ruling ensures that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its enhanced favoritism, will govern next year's elections. And it means that many Texas voters, without justification, will be sorted in electoral districts based on their race. And that result, as this court has stated consistently, is a violation of the constitution. Countrywide Map-Drawing Struggle This decision comes amid a nationwide battle over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is an essential part in campaigns to transform the U.S. House map to secure a narrow Republican hold. Usually, map-drawing occurs after a decennial population count. Yet the decision by Texas Republicans to proceed with a brazen mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer set off a series of events among other states. Republicans in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also passed new maps that could add a number of more Republican-leaning seats. Democrats, in response, have countered with their own plans in states like California and Virginia, which might neutralize those potential gains. Political Reactions Lone Star State AG hailed the High Court's decision. In a statement, he said the order upheld Texas's basic authority to draw a map that ensures representation favorable to Republicans. Our state is leading the charge to reclaim the nation, one district and one state at a time, he stated. In contrast, Democratic officials criticized 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 leading House figure argued the court had yet again damaged its legitimacy by upholding a race-based 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.