In a partial victory for Texas Republicans, the US Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld most of a 2003 redistricting plan that helped the state GOP win a near 2-to-1 advantage in congressional seats while igniting all-out partisan warfare with the state's Democrats.

Though key portions of the plan survived scrutiny by the high court, the justices in a 5-to-4 vote invalidated one of the newly drawn districts, saying race played an impermissible role in the redrafting process by diluting the voting power of Latinos.

The ruling could have far-reaching implications. Some analysts foresee a flurry of redistricting in states whenever one party or another deems it politically expedient. But the ruling dampens Democratic hopes of making significant gains in Texas this November since most of the Republican map remains intact.

The key exception is District 23, a seat currently held by seven-term Republican Rep. Henry Bonilla, which will have to be redrawn.

The action affirms much of an earlier ruling upholding the new districts by a special three-judge panel. But the justices disagreed with the lower court's conclusion that because politics, not race, was the key motive behind drafting District 23, no violation of the Voting Rights Act occurred.

Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said District 23 was drawn to exclude Latinos who were increasingly voting against Congressman Bonilla. The exclusion was illegal because it undercut the growing political clout of minority voters, Justice Kennedy says.

"The Latinos' diminishing electoral support for Bonilla indicates their belief he was unresponsive to the particularized needs of the members of the minority group," Kennedy writes. "In essence, the state took away the Latinos' opportunity because Latinos were about to exercise it."

Kennedy adds, "Even if we accept the District Court's finding that the state's action was taken primarily for political, not racial, reasons, the redrawing of the district lines was damaging to the Latinos in District 23."

The ruling means that District 23 will have to be redrawn, in part by redrawing surrounding districts in south and west Texas, including District 25.

At the center of the case was a statewide electoral map that set the stage for Texas Republicans to pick up six seats and cement Republican control of the House of Representatives.

The ongoing legal dispute threatened to throw the approaching Texas congressional elections into turmoil, potentially boosting Democratic chances to reclaim control of Congress. But with the fallout in only a few of the state's 32 congressional districts, most of the Republican map remains intact with Republicans in the other newly drawn districts continuing to enjoy the benefit of incumbency heading into the 2006 elections.

Under the old map, Texas Democrats held 17 of the 32 seats in Congress. After the new map, Republicans won 21 of the 32 seats.

Various groups of Democratic voters and elected officials filed suit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the Republican-drawn election map. They said it amounted to excessive partisan gerrymandering and that it illegally diluted the voting power of Latino and black voters in certain districts.

The high court disagreed on the gerrymandering claim and that the redrawing of District 24 in Dallas amounted to illegal dilution of black voting power. In addition, the high court rejected claims that Texas lawmakers violated constitutional protections when they redrew the congressional districts in mid-decade, rather than at the beginning of the decade as is customary.

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