🔗 Share this article Nation's Highest Court Upholds Redrawn Lone Star State House Electoral Boundaries. In a unsigned ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Texas to use a revised congressional map that is projected to include as many as five new Republican-leaning districts. The 6-3 order, released on Thursday, grants a request by the state to overturn a lower court's block that had struck down the boundaries in November. Justices' Explanation The lower court wrongly interjected itself into an ongoing primary campaign, generating much confusion and disrupting the fine equilibrium in elections, the justices wrote in detailing its ruling. The federal court had earlier ruled that Texas had probably grouped voters according to their race – a act known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it enacted the boundaries. It had instructed the state to use the boundaries established after the 2020 census for the forthcoming election. Sharp Opposition Through a strongly worded dissent, Justice Elena Kagan objected to the majority's decision. She argued that it undermined the work of the lower court, pointing out that its opinion was actually authored by a judge nominated 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 opinion co-signed by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. She continued, Today's ruling ensures that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its boosted partisan advantage, will dictate next year's elections. And it guarantees that many Texas citizens, unjustly, will be grouped in electoral districts due to their race. And that result, as this court has declared year in and year out, is a breach of the law of the land. National Redistricting Fight The ruling is part of a nationwide fight over the remapping of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in efforts to alter the U.S. House map to protect a narrow Republican hold. Ordinarily, redistricting occurs after a new decade's census. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to proceed with a bold off-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer sparked a wave among other states. Republicans in including North Carolina and Missouri have also enacted redistricting plans that could add a number of more Republican-leaning seats. The opposition, meanwhile, have countered with revised boundaries in including California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those potential gains. Partisan Responses The Texas AG hailed the High Court's decision. In a statement, he said the order upheld Texas's prerogative to draw a map that secures electoral outcomes aligned with his party. We are setting the precedent for restoring our country, through each electoral district and individual state, he remarked. In contrast, Democratic officials decried the outcome. It is deeply disheartening that the Court has endorsed this severely racially gerrymandered plan from Texas Republicans, said the head of a major Democratic campaign committee. A leading House figure stated the court had yet again shredded its standing by rubber-stamping a discriminatory 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.