(Texas redistricting) Justices Grapple With Voting Rights Case That Could Help Tip the House

Adam Litpak, NY Times

Several members of the Supreme Court appeared frustrated on Monday as they surveyed the available options and looming deadlines in a major voting rights case from Texas that could help decide control of the House.

“We are all under the gun of very strict time limitations,” said Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. Primary elections in Texas have already been moved back to April, and the court must act very quickly to avoid further delays.

As for possible rulings, the chief justice said, the court was confronted with “two wrong choices.”

The justices in essence must choose between two sets of electoral maps, or at least tell lower courts how to do so. The maps concern the two houses of the Texas Legislature and the House of Representatives.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/us/texas-voting-rights-case-goes-before-supreme-court.html

see also: Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal analyzed this case on today's PBS NewsHour. (Transcript)