A federal court panel invalidated three Republican-drawn congressional districts for violating federal law.
The three congressional districts were drawn by the Texas legislature in 2011. The federal panel said Friday the districts violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act, according to reports.
The panel said that one of the districts — District 35 held by Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas — was improperly drawn to minimize the number of Democratic districts to unseat Doggett, according to a report from the Statesman.
“The political motive does not excuse or negate that use of race; rather, the use of race is ultimately problematic for precisely that reason — because of their political motive, they intentionally drew a district based on race in a location where such use of race was not justified by a compelling state district,” the ruling said.
While the order voids the districts and says they need to be redrawn, it doesn’t provide an immediate way forward for how the state should redraw them.
