AUSTIN -- The state's bid to toss a legal challenge arguing last year's GOP-led redistricting effort violated the Texas Constitution is headed to the state Supreme Court, which accepted the case Friday.
The all-Republican Supreme Court set oral arguments on March 23, well after the March 1 primary election.
The Legislature's GOP mapmakers last fall approved new political lines that could cement Republicans' grip on power for the next decade and blunt the voting strength of nonwhite voters who fueled Texas' population surge.
As federal lawsuits over the new maps pile up, some Democrats are focusing on fights in state court. In two combined cases, a group of mostly Democratic, Latino lawmakers from both chambers challenged the constitutionality of when and how Republicans drew the boundaries.
After two days of oral arguments in December, a three-judge state district court ruled against temporarily blocking the new legislative maps, but set a trial for January. Texas then appealed the court's denial of its motions to dismiss the case, putting the trial on hold.
The lawmakers' attorneys said they don't seek to overturn the maps for the 2022 election cycle but argued for expedited resolution of the appeal "to allow sufficient time for the parties to litigate the merits before the 2023 legislative session."
"For decades, MALC has defended the freedom to vote and equal access to the ballot box. We are not surprised that (Texas Attorney General) Ken Paxton would attempt to undermine our members and the millions of Texas voices they represent," said state Rep. Rafael Anchia, chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, one of the challengers against the maps.
Focusing on the timing of the redraw are two Democratic state senators, who sued to block the Legislature from redistricting in a special session this year. Also at issue are rules for keeping counties intact when drawing Texas House districts.
Similar to a suit they filed in federal court before redrawing began, the senators' legal team argued the Texas Constitution requires that redistricting be done in a regular session that won't happen until 2023.
That makes the newly drawn state House and state Senate plans invalid, said attorneys for Sens. Roland Gutierrez and Sarah Eckhardt, both Democrats.
State lawyers argued the Legislature is "perfectly free to redistrict whenever it wants," and warned that blocking the maps will disrupt the 2022 elections already in motion.
The court fights are not uncharted territory. Every Texas redistricting plan has been either changed or tossed out by a federal court after being found in violation of the U.S. Constitution or the federal Voting Rights Act.
The consolidated case was assigned to a special three-judge panel of Democrat Karin Crump and Republicans Emily Miskel and Ken Wise. If the state Supreme Court affirms the lower court's decision, "the parties need sufficient time to return to the special three-judge district court, obtain a final judgment, and complete any appeal from that judgment," the challengers said in a filing.
The senators' legal team also argued the new state House map violated the "county line rule" of the Texas Constitution, which requires that counties with sufficient population be kept intact in drawing Texas House districts.
The Mexican American Legislative Caucus in the Texas House made a similar case that the rule was broken, arguing it was designed to ensure people have local representation.
The complaints focus on the redrawing of Cameron County in the Rio Grande Valley.
As lawmakers last fall debated the new House lines, they narrowly adopted a major change in South Texas. House District 37 was redrawn from a seat President Joe Biden won by 17 percentage points, to a seat the president won by only two points over former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
That amendment, developed by GOP Rep. J.M. Lozano, was denounced by some Valley lawmakers.
The plaintiffs' legal team argued the county line rule requires that two districts be wholly contained within Cameron County. Yet Lozano's tweaks give Cameron County just one wholly contained district, with two that connect to adjoining counties.
The new House plan "dilutes representation of Hispanics, especially those that vote," District 37 Rep. Alex Dominguez, who is running for a Texas Senate seat, testified in December. "It makes it more difficult for Hispanics to elect their candidate of choice."
State lawyers argued the new boundaries do not dilute votes in Cameron County, and that Cameron got the number of districts it was constitutionally entitled to. District 37 Democratic candidate Ruben Cortez Jr. joined the senators' suit, along with political organization Tejano Democrats.
In the federal court fight, a three-judge panel set a September trial start date. The U.S. Department of Justice has sued to block Texas' gerrymandered congressional and state House maps. Several civil and voting rights groups, as well as individual voters, are among the plaintiffs in the consolidated federal redistricting case.
Court challengers say the redrawn congressional, legislative and State Board of Education maps do not reflect the major growth of the Latino community, which made up nearly half of the state's population gain since 2020. People of color accounted for 95% of the state's population boom over the last decade, with much of the growth concentrated in cities and suburban areas, census data show.
A push by Tarrant County Democratic state Sen. Beverly Powell to temporarily block the redraw of her district is scheduled to be heard Tuesday in federal court.
In the plan for state House elections, the number of majority-white seats increased from 83 to 89, among eligible voters. The number of majority-Latino districts dropped from 33 to 30, and the number of majority-Black districts dropped from seven to six. Asian voters remain without majority control in any district.
The decennial process following a U.S. Census typically leads to lawsuits in Texas, with the courts largely siding with Republicans in recent years. Lawmakers can draw maps in a way that benefits their party's political future as long as they do not discriminate on the basis of race.
This year, GOP lawmakers have a clearer path to prevailing because Texas is no longer required to get federal approval for new political maps. The new maps are generally expected to withstand lawsuits, but battles over aspects of the boundaries could last several years.