District Court, Splitting 2-1, Finds Texas Congressional Districts Violate VRA

[Heisenberg]

Anyone have an idea as to how the new maps may look like?

[Heisenberg]

Could someone who's knowledgeable about this explain why CD's 15, 28, and 34 are drawn as three long north-south strips rather than three compact districts?

I think it's because if they were more compact, there would only be two Hispanic seats in the Valley, and the third would be a predominantly White, rural, Republican district.

[Heisenberg]

Anyone have an idea as to how the new maps may look like?

Likely a total redraw of the southern part of the state, Fourth valley district would be likely.  Austin would likely also have a seat entirely in Travis county as well.  It might take out 2 or 3 republicans, depending on what they do in San Antonio. 

Maybe some rearanging of the 11 and 23.

If there's a fourth valley seat, I assume this means Farenthold's seat is dismantled, and then 15, 27, 28, and 34 are all long, tall "fajita strips"?
Yes, an Austin-anchored White district is probably going to happen. A blessing in disguise for the GOP, you can only crack it into so many pieces, and many rich, white Austin suburbanites who voted against Obama twice can't stand Trump.
With Doggett's current seat being dismantled in favor of an Austin-anchored one, I suppose this would mean a second Hispanic mostly-San Antonio seat?
Lastly, not quite sure what becomes of 23 and 11 if San Antonio. Playing around with DRA, it's hard to have 4 valley strips, 2 San Antonio seats, AND a D-leaning TX-23, but then again the numbers used are pretty old.
As for TX-26 being mentioned (I think), are they mandating a third DFW-area VRA seat, too?