U.S. High Court Rejects Calls to Transform Voting-Map Rules
- Supreme Court allows equal-population standard for districts
- Ruling based on `one person, one vote' constitutional standard
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state and local governments can continue their longstanding method of drawing equal-sized election districts, rejecting calls for what might have been a transformational change reducing Hispanic voting clout.
Unanimously upholding Texas voting lines Monday, the justices rejected conservative groups’ arguments that map-drawers should stop using total population and start using eligible voters as the measure for the Constitution’s "one person, one vote" principle. That approach might have reduced representation for areas with large numbers of children and non-citizens and shifted some seats to more heavily Republican areas.