The clarification from Chief Circuit Judge Priscilla Richman comes two days after the appeals court agreed to rehear Petteway v. Galveston County next May.
Plaintiffs in the case are seeking rapid intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court to force the county to redraw its political map in line with the Voting Rights Act. Stephen Holmes, the county commissioner at the center of the case, is up for reelection next year.