Update, 5:22 p.m. Aug. 31: Revised to reflect the attorney general's request for a stay in the proceedings.

AUSTIN -- A federal court in San Antonio ruled last week that parts of Texas' statehouse maps are intentionally discriminatory and ordered districts in four counties, including Dallas and Tarrant, redrawn.

On Thursday, Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the ruling, as was expected. Earlier this week, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito temporarily blocked a lower court's order that Texas redraw some of its congressional districts that were struck down as racially discriminatory.

Alito's action Monday was intended to put off a court hearing scheduled for Tuesday in San Antonio until the full Supreme Court has a chance to weigh in. A hearing on the House maps was scheduled for Wednesday.

The decision by a three-judge panel was the second time the court had ruled Texas' statehouse maps discriminatory. Earlier this year, the court had ruled that the state's 2011 maps were intentionally discriminatory. In 2013, the state redrew those maps after another court had found they had discriminatory effects. The 2013 maps are the ones currently used for elections.

In its ruling, the court said the intentional discrimination from 2011 carried over into parts of the 2013 maps. The ruling will affect five districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area: state House Districts 103, 104 and 105 in Dallas County and Districts 90 and 93 in Tarrant County.

It will also affect state House Districts 32 and 34 in Nueces County and Districts 54 and 55 in Bell County. In rulings favorable to the state, the court found that the 2013 redraw had remedied discrimination in Harris, Fort Bend and Bexar counties and that districts there required no more changes.

This is the third major defeat in nine days for Texas officials in election-related lawsuits -- and as in the other two rulings, Attorney General Ken Paxton said the state would appeal.

In 2013, the court provided the Legislature with an interim fix to its discrimination for elections that were coming up. The state mostly stuck to that map.

"The judges held that maps they themselves adopted violate the law," Paxton said in a statement Thursday. "Needless to say, we will appeal."

Last week, the court found that the state’s congressional map as redrawn in 2013 remained discriminatory, and it invalidated two of the state’s congressional districts -- one in Austin and another in Corpus Christi. That decision left observers waiting eagerly for a ruling on the state House maps, which also had been challenged.

In the ruling on the congressional maps, the court gave the state three days to decide whether to call a special session of the Legislature to remedy the discrimination found in the maps. Instead, Paxton's office said it would appeal the ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The district court gave the state the same notice after its ruling on the state House districts.

Gov. Greg Abbott indicated after the ruling on the congressional maps that he would not call a special session and would instead appeal to the Supreme Court.

Judges' ruling

The redrawing of the state House map could create more districts where minorities make up a majority of the population, which would be likely to give Democrats an edge in those areas. Plaintiffs in the case have asked the court to block use of the state’s current maps in next year’s elections, but the panel has not ruled on that request.

The court agreed with the plaintiffs' claim that the state had packed Latinos into House Districts 103 and 104 in Dallas -- currently represented by Democrats Rafael Anchia and Robert Alonzo, respectively -- to limit Latinos' voting strength in surrounding districts. The other district that was ruled discriminatory is District 105, represented by Republican Rodney Anderson of Grand Prairie. Adjusting those district boundaries might mean another opportunity district for Democrats.

The court said it found "an improper use of race to dilute Latino voting strength in western Dallas County."

"Specifically, the Court found that map drawers improperly used race to make HD 103 and HD 104 more Hispanic and HD 105 more Anglo to protect an Anglo Republican," U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez wrote on behalf of the panel.

Though the Legislature made some changes in the 2013 redrawing, those changes "did not remove or remedy the intentional discrimination," the court said in ordering those three districts redrawn.

The court also found discriminatory intent in the redrawing of Tarrant County's House District 90, now represented by Democrat Ramon Romero, and District, 93, represented by Republican Matt Krause. The court found that the map drawers had acted in "bad faith" when they increased the Latino population of District 90, a move that limited their voting strength in surrounding districts, while simultaneously increasing the white population, which was more likely to vote for Krause, in District 93.

The court also ruled that a move by former Democratic Rep. Lon Burnam and supported by legislative leaders to return the predominantly black Como community to House District 90 amounted to racial gerrymandering. Plaintiffs had alleged that legislators had selectively moved precincts into and out of the district in order to reintroduce Como, but still kept a quota of Latinos at above 50 percent.

Because voters were moved into and out of District 90 to meet a racial quota predetermined by the Legislature, the court said, "race was the predominant factor in the design of the district as a whole in 2013."

Experts say changes in one district's borders could have a domino effect that could dramatically change the makeup of the entire map because other districts would have to be adjusted accordingly.

Ruling reaction

Democrats celebrated last week's ruling, accusing the Republican-led Legislature of "Jim Crow-era tactics" that "stole the voice of Texans at the ballots for years."

"Today's decision is a historic victory for the sacred voting rights of all Texans," Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, said in a news release. "We look forward to legislative and congressional districts in 2018 that truly reflect the great diversity of our state. We have won this battle, but our fight is not over. We must do everything in our power to reform redistricting and expand every Texan's right to vote."

In response, Texas Republican Party chairman James Dickey said: "The Republican Party platform calls for voting districts to be drawn without race, origin, or creed for identification purposes. If some Texas House districts must be redrawn by lawmakers, we ask that they draw according to this standard."

Not all Republicans were disappointed by the ruling. Rep. Jason Villalba, a Dallas-area Republican whose district was not discussed in the order, said in a tweet that because only five Republican districts of the 10 challenged were ordered changed, the decision was a "clear victory for [the] GOP."

Court finds that only 5 R HDs must be addressed in a redraw. @MALCTx requested 10. Clear victory for #GOP. #TxLege. https://t.co/XazeqR7FGC — Jason Villalba (@JasonVillalba) August 24, 2017

Anchia, who represents District 104, praised the ruling. He pointed out that federal courts have now found nine times — five in voter ID cases and four in redistricting cases — that the Legislature discriminated against minorities.

"Texas voters deserve this win in the courts," he said in a statement. "Failed leaders in Texas continue to play a broken record. They have a habit of discrimination, and instead of fixing it, they force taxpayers to foot the bill to defend unconstitutional maps. It's time these politicians own up to their mistake and make right by voters."