“Republicans have ensured that the dark days of discrimination in Texas continue to loom, but the sun will soon shine,” Gilberto Hinojosa, the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, said in a statement after the redistricting decision. “In time, justice prevails.”The ruling was made by two judges on a panel of three Federal District judges that heard the case. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyThe third judge, Jerry E. Smith, issued a dissent, arguing that Texas Republican lawmakers who drew the maps had partisan rather than racial motives. Texas had been one of several mostly Southern states that required federal approval before making changes to its voting laws, because of the states’ history of discrimination. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyThe San Antonio judges did not address whether they would order Texas back under federal oversight, stating only that “those issues remain to be determined.”

Source: New York Times March 11, 2017 22:18 UTC