The battle over congressional redistricting has shifted from the Capitol to the courtroom.

Democrats filed a motion in federal court in Tyler seeking to prohibit the state from implementing the new Repub- lican-backed congressional redistricting map, lawyer Gerry Hebert said Tuesday.

The motion says the map violates the voting rights of minorities and would create unnecessary confusion in the 2004 elections.

The state "should be required to show some public benefit produced by use of the (new map) that outweighs the disruption," the Democrats wrote in their motion. They said the map "would be particularly disruptive, as it moves more than 8.1 million Texans into new districts."

Lawmakers approved the new map over the weekend, and Republican Gov. Rick Perry signed it Monday.

The motion was filed Sunday in Tyler because in 2001 that court drew the congressional redistricting map that is now in effect, Hebert said.

"We think that any proposal to change the court's map ought to be dealt with by that court," said Hebert, who represents Democrats in the Texas Legislature and Texas' congressional delegation.

Angela Hale, spokeswoman for Attorney General Greg Abbott, said the office had not seen the motion but said, "Nothing in the opinion or final judgment of (the 2001 case) asserts ongoing jurisdiction over future congressional redistricting in Texas."

Under the new redistricting plan, Republicans could win as many as seven additional seats in the state's congressional delegation. Democrats hold a 17-15 majority in the delegation.

Republicans pushed for new congressional districts this year although it was a noncensus year, saying that lawmakers, not judges, should be drawing the boundaries.

Democrats wanted to keep the existing map and fought the bill's passage, staging two boycotts of the Texas Legislature. Perry called three special sessions before the bill was approved.

It took several weeks, however, for Republicans to agree on a plan during the session that ended Sunday.

After the bill passed, the Democrats said there were at least three federal Voting Rights Act violations in the map.

Democrats said Republicans turned a previously Hispanic district into a nonminority district by splitting Webb County, home to Laredo, because it cuts from one district tens of thousands of South Texans living along the Mexico border.

Democrats also complained about the destruction of the minority district held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Martin Frost in the Dallas area and a district that starts in Travis County, home to Austin and the Capitol, and snakes its way to the Mexico border.