The following is a statement from Tarrant County Democratic Party Chairman Steve Maxwell on today’s Supreme Court ruling:

“Attorney General Abbott stated today that “the Supreme Court confirmed that the San Antonio court drew illegal maps…”. As a lawyer, Abbott should be capable of a better understanding of the Supreme Court’s decision. He has totally missed the point. The Supreme Court has indeed vacated the maps drawn by the Federal Court in San Antonio. It has NOT declared these maps to be “illegal”, as Abbott said.

The Supreme Court has merely noted that the San Antonio court did not properly cite the standards by which it was guided in drawing its maps. The job of preparing new maps has been returned to the San Antonio court so that they can be redrawn.

Notably, the Supreme Court makes it clear that even if the Legislature’s maps should be given due consideration as to their intent, it does not mean that either Section 2 or Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act can be either ignored, or minimized. Indeed, the Supreme Court’s decision makes it clear that the preclearance required under Section 5 is an absolute requirement before the Legislature’s maps can be implemented. The San Antonio court, therefore, can still make the determination that the D.C. court will refuse preclearance of the Legislature’s map; or, it can wait for the ruling of the D.C. court.

The San Antonio court can, and will be guided both by the ruling of the D.C. Court of the Section 5 issues, and its own determination of the Section 2 issues. We could very easily see the San Antonio court return with the same map it prepared in November — only this time, the necessary legal justification will be clearly stated.”