The U.S. Supreme Court refused to postpone Texas’ congressional elections, rejecting calls from a Hispanic civil-rights group that said the district lines illegally discriminate against racial minorities.
The rebuff of the League of United Latin American Citizens leaves intact an interim map that a three-judge panel in San Antonio put in place for this year’s Nov. 6 election. The map is designed to govern while a separate case goes forward to determine the district lines for future years.
In that separate case, a three-judge panel in Washington ruled last month that a congressional map drawn by the Republican-controlled Texas legislature violates the U.S. Voting Rights Act by reducing the power of minority groups. The panel also threw out the voting lines for the state legislature.
The Washington court’s ruling prompted LULAC, as the Hispanic-rights group is known, to ask the Supreme Court to order changes to the interim congressional map as well. The high court today rejected that bid.
In January, the Supreme Court unanimously threw out earlier versions of the interim maps for both federal and state races. The San Antonio court then put in place maps that hewed more closely to the ones drawn by the legislature. The state used the new interim maps for the May 29 primary.
The case acted on today is League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry, 12A234.
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