Washington (CNN) The Supreme Court continues to deliver an implicit message to civil rights advocates challenging state election practices as discriminatory: States can do what they want.

The conservative bloc under Chief Justice John Roberts has made plain that it believes states should be freer to determine their own voting maps and election practices, and that concerns about race discrimination simply do not carry the weight of earlier eras.

By a 5-4 vote on Monday, the court upheld Texas congressional and legislative districts that a lower court declared discriminated against Latinos. Earlier this month, the same 5-4 lineup of Republican-appointed justices against Democratic-appointed justices affirmed an Ohio law for purging citizens from voter rolls that challengers said would disproportionately hurt minorities.

The Texas and Ohio cases, combined with the court's recent actions declining to rule on claims of partisan gerrymandering, and a landmark ruling on the Voting Rights Act five years ago, suggest a freer rein for states.

These decisions are likely to reverberate in upcoming elections and the post-2020 Census redistricting. As was seen in the Texas and Ohio cases, voting rights challenges typically comes from liberal, Democratic-leaning groups against Republican-controlled state legislatures. The Supreme Court trend might only strengthen the GOP hold on states and Congress.

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