AUSTIN — Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to take up an appeal of a lower court ruling that invalidated two of Texas' congressional districts.

"It's fitting that the Supreme Court hear this case, given that it ordered the district court in San Antonio to draw the congressional maps in 2012 that were adopted by the Legislature in 2013 and used in the last three election cycles in Texas," Paxton said in a news release. "The lower court's decision to invalidate parts of the maps it drew and adopted is inexplicable and indefensible. We're eager for the high court to take up the case."

In August, a three-judge panel in a San Antonio federal district court unanimously found that Texas' 2013 congressional district map was drawn with intent to discriminate against minorities. As part of its ruling, the court invalidated two congressional districts — one in Central Texas represented by Democrat Lloyd Doggett and another in Corpus Christi represented by Republican Blake Farenthold — and ordered them redrawn.

Paxton's request is another twist in the six-year saga over the state's electoral maps, which were originally drawn in 2011. After a lawsuit, the panel ordered the state in 2012 to redraw its maps and provided a map for lawmakers to use as a template.

In 2013, the Legislature adopted a new congressional map based on the court's suggestion, so the state argues it cannot be discriminatory. But the plaintiffs in the legal battle over the maps claim the state did the bare minimum to address the discriminatory issues the court identified and failed to take into account other suggestions to correct the map, leaving the new map with the same problems that plagued the original. The court sided with the plaintiffs.

Immediately after the lower court's August decision, Paxton appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in September sided with Texas and blocked the lower court's ruling until it could fully consider the case. That ruling allowed the state to keep intact its electoral maps through the 2018 elections, a major defeat for the plaintiffs, who had hoped for a more advantageous political landscape during the midterm elections.

Now Paxton is asking the court to settle the issue once and for all.

The lower court ruling also invalidated nine statehouse districts. Paxton said he will ask the Supreme Court to take up that question, too.