Supreme Court throws out judge-drawn Texas electoral maps

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Friday threw out a lower court’s interim maps for voting districts in Texas, saying the judges should have been guided more by the maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

The high court sent the closely watched Texas voting-rights case back to the judges in San Antonio for further proceedings. The unsigned opinion, issued just 11 days after oral arguments, appeared to be a compromise among the justices as the Texas primary elections neared.

Their decision stressed that judges drawing new voting districts must take their lead from a state legislature yet “take care not to incorporate into any interim plan any legal defects in the state plan.” Advocates for Latino and African-American voters had sued the state, saying the Legislature’s voting districts discriminated against minorities and would dilute their power at the polls.

Friday’s ruling lays out standards for new voting districts and also acknowledges that a separate hearing underway in Washington, D.C., on the Texas maps would likely impact the maps to be used in the state’s upcoming primary elections.