DALLAS (November 4, 2009)--A federal appeals court has affirmed a lower court ruling against three Latino voters who tried to change how council members are elected in the Dallas suburb of Farmer’s Branch, which has been trying to drive illegal immigrants from the city through a series of ordinances.

The voting-rights lawsuit alleged that the city's minority vote was diluted by its at-large City Council system.

The plaintiffs wanted the court to force the city to create single-member districts, arguing that Hispanic citizens of voting age would form a majority of the voters registered in one of the proposed districts.

The three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the argument.

In a ruling Tuesday, the New Orleans-based panel insisted that the number of minority citizens of voting age in a proposed district must form a majority of the total population of its voting-age citizens.