Supreme Court Overturns Judge-Drawn Texas Congressional Districts

(Newsroom America) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday threw out judge-drawn Texas election maps that favored minorities and Democrats in the coming 2012 elections.

In the high court's first ruling on a case involving political redistricting based on the 2010 Census, justices unanimously rejected interim maps drawn by federal district court judges in San Antonio, reports said.

Justices said it wasn't clear the federal judges used appropriate standards in making their decisions so they sent the cases back for further consideration.

The cases involved the reshaping of districts Texas would have utilized in its upcoming April 3 primaries to decide what candidates would represent Democrats and Republicans in the November state and congressional elections.

The high court's decision was being closely monitored because it would have helped decide which party would have picked up as many as four additional seats in the U.S. House in the fall elections.

"Some aspects of the district court's plans seem to pay adequate attention to the state's policies, others do not and the propriety of still others is unclear," said the court, in its opinion.

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