Texas is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a U.S. District Court ruling that required nine of the state’s 150 House districts to be redrawn.
The state Attorney General’s Office has filed a brief to that effect.
In September, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily stayed the district court’s ruling and allowed Texas to continue to use the existing maps while the redistricting case remains pending. Candidate filings for the 2018 elections begin next month and early primary voting begins in February.
“We’re eager for the Supreme Court to review all the facts in this case, which are clearly on our side,” Attorney General Paxton said. “The portion of the House redistricting map invalidated by the lower court is the map the same court drew and approved in 2012 before the Legislature adopted it in 2013. It’s been used in the last three election cycles in Texas, and there is no sound reason for that to change.”
In a separate ruling, the Supreme Court also temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that invalidated two of Texas’ 36 congressional seats. Attorney General Paxton filed a brief on Oct. 17 asking the high court to reverse the district court’s ruling in that case.