On December 12, the U.S. Supreme Court voted to hear the Texas redistricting cases. Oral argument be on March 1, 2006. The issue is whether anything in the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from redrawing U.S. House districts in the middle of the decade for openly partisan reasons. The news was surprising and exciting. The Court had been pondering whether to take this case since October 2005. Technically, there are 4 cases combined, numbers 05-204, 05-254, 05-276 and 05-439.