🔗 Share this article Supreme Court Upholds Newly Drawn Texas House Electoral Boundaries. In a per curiam order, the highest judicial body cleared the way for Texas to employ a newly configured congressional boundary scheme that could add up to five new conservative-tilting districts. The six-to-three ruling, released on Thursday, upholds a petition by the state to overturn a district court's injunction that had rejected the new map in November. Court's Reasoning The district court wrongly interjected itself into an active primary campaign, causing significant confusion and upsetting the fine equilibrium in elections, the justices wrote in justifying its decision. The federal court had earlier ruled that Texas had probably grouped voters according to their race – a practice known as unconstitutional racial sorting – when it adopted the new maps. It had mandated the state to revert to the boundaries established after the last decennial survey for the next year's election. Strong Opposition Through a sharply worded objection, Justice Elena Kagan criticized the majority's decision. She argued that it undermined the work of the district court, noting that its decision was written by a judge nominated by ex-President Donald Trump. Our position is above the district court, but our capability is not greater for resolving such fact-driven issues, Kagan wrote in a opinion co-signed by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The justice went on, Today's ruling solidifies that Texas's redistricting plan, with all its enhanced political tilt, will control next year's elections. And it guarantees that many Texas voters, unjustly, will be placed in electoral districts due to their race. And that result, as this court has pronounced year in and year out, is a violation of the constitution. National Map-Drawing Struggle This decision occurs during a nationwide fight over the redrawing of electoral maps. Texas is a key piece in pushes to transform the U.S. House map to secure a slim Republican control. Ordinarily, redistricting takes place after a new decade's census. Yet the move by Texas Republicans to move ahead with a brazen mid-cycle redistricting earlier in the summer triggered a series of events among other states. GOP lawmakers in states like North Carolina and Missouri have also enacted new maps that could add several more GOP-friendly seats. Democratic lawmakers, for their part, have countered with their own plans in states like California and Virginia, which are intended to balance those projected gains. Political Responses Lone Star State attorney general welcomed the High Court's decision. In a comment, he said the order upheld Texas's prerogative to draw a map that ensures representation supportive of the GOP. Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state, he added. On the other hand, Democratic representatives decried the decision. The Court's approval of this extreme, racially gerrymandered Texas GOP map is profoundly disappointing, said the chair of a major Democratic campaign committee. A senior House figure stated the court had once again shredded its legitimacy by upholding 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.