May 29 primary all but certain, even without federal preclearance ruling

"There has to be a reason why they simply have not handed down a ruling," Wood stated. "We thought for sure the three-judge panel would have ruled last week."

The main obstacle is the argument by several minority rights groups that Austin-based District 25 is a coalition district and therefore, the Congressional map violates the Voting Rights Act by reconfiguring its boundaries.

Meanwhile, the Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force has claimed that "Anglo voters dominate the Democratic primary" in District 25, so protection is not required.

There was not an official deadline for a decision, but a ruling against the maps would have been needed by the end of March to feasibly allow time to draw new ones by May 29. A delay at this point would most certainly mean pushing the primary back to late June with a runoff in September—two months before the general election.

Both Wood and Steve Bickerstaff, an adjunct law professor at The University of Texas School of Law, say they believe if the maps are rejected, the San Antonio court would decide another delay would be too disruptive to the 2012 elections and plead to make changes for the next election cycle.

"My feeling now is that no matter what the D.C. court does, we're going to use the San Antonio maps at least one time," Wood said.