SCOTUS Delays Redrawing Of Texas Congressional Districts After Lower-Court Gerrymandering Ruling

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on Congressional redistricting that could have future implications for the balance of power in the Lone Star State.

As The Dallas Morning News reports, the case centers on a redistricting effort in Wisconsin that resembles in many ways the attempts by the Texas GOP to redraw district lines to favor their own party, a process known as "gerrymandering."

Last month a federal appeals court ruled that Texas’s controversial Voter ID law discriminates against black and Hispanic voters. Now, reports The Dallas Morning News, the Lone Star State is appealing the decision with the U.S. Supreme Court.

After decades of being restricted, abortion access is on the rise again in Texas, reports The Texas Observer.

The US Supreme Court has declined to hear a lawsuit challenging Colorado’s marijuana legalization law, reports The New York Times. Two other High Plains states, Nebraska and Oklahoma, had sought to use a rare procedure to attack the Colorado law by going directly to the high court.

When it comes to abortions, High Plains residents must travel farther than almost any other US citizens, reports the New York Times.  Amarillo residents must travel 234 miles to the nearest clinic. Many denizens of the Oklahoma Panhandle and Western Kansas must likewise travel over 200 miles to have the service performed. The national average outside Texas is 59 miles.

A federal judge may soon require the State of Texas to send all requests for election law changes through the Federal Government for approval.

As The Huffington Post reports, in the last couple of weeks, federal courts have ruled in three separate cases that Republican lawmakers intentionally redrew Texas congressional districts to discriminate against minorities.