FORT WORTH, Texas — A federal court on Tuesday ruled against a motion to block the new boundaries of a Tarrant County state Senate district. Instead, the map will stay in place for the March primaries while the challenge plays out in court. 

The suit was filed by Democratic Sen. Beverly Powell and six other Tarrant County voters. During the GOP-led redistricting process, Powell’s district, Senate District 10, changed significantly. The Legislature shifted the seat by splitting up communities of color and merging them into a large rural area controlled by white voters. The redrawn map now favors Republicans and hurts Powell’s chances to be reelected.

While the state has repeatedly said the map was drawn in accordance with the law and is race blind, Powell disagrees.

“I contend that it’s clear to everyone that this map disenfranchises the African American and Hispanic communities,” the senator said in an interview with Capital Tonight before the verdict was handed down. “You can say it was drawn along political lines, but it’s clear this a racially discriminatory map.”

Powell’s team has yet to comment on the ruling, which will probably be appealed. The suit, and other challenges to the redistricting process, have been combined into a case that will go to trial in September. Powell’s was the only motion that sought to block the map ahead of the primary.

“By splintering apart Black and brown voters, as the Legislature has done, they have made the government not work for those people,” said Mark Gaber, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “And they deserve just as much representation as anyone else.” 

Overseeing that combined redistricting case are Ronald Reagan appointee Jerry E. Smith, Barack Obama appointee David C. Guaderrama, and Donald Trump appointee Jeffrey V. Brown.

During the recent hearing, one Republican bucked party to support Powell’s case. State Sen. Kel Seliger, who’s retiring, told a federal court he believes his party violated federal voting laws when it redrew the boundaries of Senate District 10 in Tarrant County.

“Having participated in the 2011 and 2013 Senate Select Redistricting Committee proceedings, and having read the prior federal court decision regarding SD10, it was obvious to me that the renewed effort to dismantle SD 10 violated the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution,” he wrote in a sworn declaration.

Seliger previously chaired the Senate Redistricting Committee in 2011. A federal court later found the 2011 plan for that same District 10 Senate seat discriminated against voters of color, forcing lawmakers to change it. 

Lawsuits routinely followed the once-a-decade redistricting process in Texas, but this is the first time in decades the state does not need to get federal approval for the new maps.