"A closely watched Texas election case resumed Tuesday, with Republican officials challenging a federal law they say has been “twisted” to benefit Democratic candidates.

Lawyers for GOP-controlled Galveston County claimed to the New Orleans-based US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that their 2021 redistricting plan, which broke up a Democrat-held, majority-black and Hispanic precinct, is lawful under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.

So-called “coalition districts” are meant to protect the rights of racial and ethnic minority voters who make up a majority of the population in a certain area, and their constitutionality has been upheld by federal courts."