Supreme Court blocks rulings forcing Texas to redraw districts

The Supreme Court put two rulings on hold late Tuesday that directed Texas officials to redraw Congressional and state voter districts.
The Supreme Court issued two orders blocking rulings from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas invalidating redistricting plans for two Congressional districts in Texas - held by Rep. Blake Farenthold (R) and Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D) - and the Texas House of Representatives.



Justice Samuel Alito had temporarily stayed the rulings to give the challengers time to respond and the court time to consider the state’s request.
The court voted 5-4 on each order blocking the rulings. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan said they would have denied the state’s request.
The lower court had found the state intentionally tried to weaken the power of Hispanic voters by preserving congressional district held by Farenthold and had relied too heavily race in preserving the district held by Doggett.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had argued in the state’s request for the stay that the order had left the state “in an impossible position” due to the Oct. 1 deadline to provide templates of voter-registration certificates to election officials in each of the state’s 254 counties.

More at: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...draw-districts

As race and politics become increasingly intertwined moving forward, the idea that you can't redistrict based on "race" loses all justification.