A federal court panel has ruled that the Texas Legislature's redistricting maps discriminate against minority voters.

The three maps, for new districts for the U.S. House and the Texas Senate and House, violated the Voting Rights Act because they "have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color, or language minority group," the three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said in its 154-page opinion.

As the Austin Statesman notes, Texas had bypassed the Department of Justice to ask the court to approve the maps. The process, called "preclearance," applies to states or jurisdictions with a history of voter discrimination. Currently, Texas is one of 16 mostly southern states needing such approval.

The Republican-controlled state Legislature approved the maps last year. The judges ruled that Texas prosecutors had failed to show that lawmakers did not draw the maps "without discriminatory purposes."

"This is absolutely a victory for Texas and for minority voters to elect a candidate of their choice," Trey Martinez Fischer with the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, told the Houston Chronicle.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said he would appeal immediately to the U.S. Supreme Court. He had argued that the redistricting plans were drawn up to consolidate Republican power, not to discriminate against Latinos, African Americans or other minority voters.