Supreme Court ruling likely to push back Texas primary again

Local election administrators around the state have said they won't be able to conduct April 3 primaries unless they have maps by the end of this month

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The Texas Tribune | By Ross Ramsey (Jan. 20, 2012) – The U.S. Supreme Court threw out court-drawn Texas redistricting maps on Friday morning, saying a panel of federal judges should have used the Legislature's maps as their starting point.

That's a victory for the state, which argued for the Legislature's maps. But it still leaves Texas without maps for the primary elections this spring, and probably ensures that those elections will be held later than April 3, the currently scheduled date.

SCOTUS rules: Sends case back to San Antonio for further proceedings | A legal analysis of the opinion by attorney Michael Li – The court held that the state’s maps should have been used as the starting point for interim maps but that the San Antonio court could adjust those maps if it found a likelihood of section 2 or other (Voting Rights Act) violations as a result of the case tried before it or if the court found a “reasonable probability” of section 5 violations.