San Antonio, Texas – Congressman Charlie Gonzalez issued the following statement regarding the decision by a three judge panel in federal district court to reject the maps for Texas congressional, state house, and state senate districts enacted by the state legislature:

 “With today’s ruling, two federal judicial panels have now found the Texas legislature’s maps illegal. Both panels found that the proposed maps intentionally denied the people of Texas their right to elect the government officials of their choice to represent them. In a representative democracy such as ours, the Republican dominated Texas legislature’s failure to respect this bedrock principle is deplorable. I hope that everyone involved will read today’s opinion carefully and work to propose maps that reflect the rights of all of our citizens.”

The District Court of the District of Columbia today rejected the maps enacted by the Texas legislature in 2011 for violating Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. While today’s ruling will not impact the elections scheduled this year, it is certain that new lines will be drawn for the 2014 elections.

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