AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says federal judges got it wrong in ruling that Republicans racially gerrymandered some congressional districts to weaken the voting power of minorities.
But his office Monday didn’t say what Texas may do next. A three-judge panel in San Antonio didn’t propose any immediate fix after concluding that the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2011 drew maps with discriminatory intent.
A Paxton spokeswoman says the state is evaluating its options. Paxton says the challenge to the old maps is moot since they were redrawn by a court in 2012 and never used in an election.
The original maps were drawn the same year the Texas Legislature passed the state’s voter ID law. Another federal court is now considering whether that law, too, was crafted with discriminatory intent.
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