Democrats lose political map case

Texas Democrats once fled to try to block the plan

US state lawmakers can redraw electoral maps to favour their own parties at any time, the Supreme Court has ruled.

By a vote of 7-2, the country's highest court rejected claims by Democrats that Texas Republicans had behaved wrongly by changing boundaries in 2003.

Districts must be redrawn every 10 years to reflect population changes, but Republicans redrew the map a second time in a decade after taking power.

In a related ruling, the court said redistricting must not harm minorities.

Hispanic voters had said the 2003 redistricting did not protect them as required by the Voting Rights Act, and the court agreed by a vote of 5 to 4.

Flight, not fight

The fight over redistricting - known popularly as gerrymandering - led to one of the most colourful episodes in recent US political history: Texas Democratic lawmakers fled the state to try to block the Republican move.

They hoped to deprive the state legislature of the minimum number of legislators required to do business, and holed up in a hotel in neighbouring Oklahoma.

Some districts changed radically in the new map

They eventually came back and Republicans pushed through the change.

In elections the following year, Texas Republicans gained six seats in the US House of Representatives.

Republicans said the map changes reflected the state's shifting population and would redress the wrong done to them by the Democrats when they drew the boundaries in 1991.

The state legislature was unable to agree new boundaries after the 2000 census, so a court drew them in 2001.

Republicans took control of the state legislature at the next election and redrew them.

Democrats argued they had broken the law by drawing new districts only two years after the previous redistricting, but the Supreme Court rejected their case on Wednesday.

The decision effectively means districts could change as often as the party in power does - as long as the changes do not disenfranchise minority voters.

The court said on Wednesday minority rights must be protected, which will mean some changes to the 2003 map.