East Texas Review
October 17, 2017
Attorney General Ken Paxton today filed a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up Texas’ congressional redistricting case and correct a U.S. District Court ruling from August that invalidated two of the state’s 36 congressional seats. Last month, the high court blocked the lower court’s ruling and allowed Texas to continue to use the existing maps in the 2018 elections, for which candidate filing begins next month.
“It’s fitting that the Supreme Court hear this case, given that it ordered the district court in San Antonio to draw the congressional maps in 2012 that were adopted by the Legislature in 2013 and used in the last three election cycles in Texas,” Attorney General Paxton said. “The lower court’s decision to invalidate parts of the maps it drew and adopted is inexplicable and indefensible. We’re eager for the high court to take up the case.”
In a separate ruling last month, the U.S. Supreme Court also blocked a lower court ruling that invalidated nine of Texas’ 150 House seats. Attorney General Paxton indicated he plans soon to ask the high court to take up that redistricting case.
