A federal court judge has dismissed a voting rights lawsuit against Farmers Branch in which three Hispanic residents sought to force the city to move from at-large voting for the City Council to single-member districts.

The plaintiffs had argued the at-large system diluted the voting strength of Hispanics, who have never been elected to the council. They also contended that if the city were divided into districts, one could be created with a Hispanic majority.

Today, Judge Reed O’Connor dismissed the suit with prejudice, meaning the suit cannot be brought again by these plaintiffs.

Judge O’Connor said the plaintiffs did not prove that a majority-minority single-member district could be created.

The lawsuit was filed shortly after the May 2007 council elections. The plaintiffs had contended that if single-member districts were in place, Jose Galvez would have been elected. He was the first Hispanic to run for the council. The suit also came just days after more than two-thirds of Farmers Branch voters ratified a city ordinance seeking to halt apartment rentals to illegal immigrants.

“I was told by an attorney before the suit was filed that they were doing it in retaliation for the immigration ordinance,” City Manager Gary Greer said of the voting rights lawsuit. “The attorney told me he was doing this to drain our resources.”

Mr. Greer identified the attorney as Dallas activist Domingo Garcia. Mr. Garcia did not immediately return a phone message left at his office.

Mr. Garcia helped bring together the plaintiffs and San Antonio attorney Rolando Rios.

Much of the trial testimony over a day and a half in May focused on how the plaintiffs determined the Hispanic citizen population of the proposed district, which includes parts of voting precincts 1500 and 1502 and lies just east of Interstate 35E and north of Valley View Lane.

Judge O’Connor “did not find that we could draw a district in which minorities could elect a candidate of their choice,” Mr. Rios said today. “Obviously we disagree. We think if there were single member districts in Farmers Branch today, there would be some minority representation on the council.”

He said he could not speak on Mr. Greer’s assertions about Mr. Garcia.

“We filed this case, as far as I know, because the Hispanics want to have minority representation on the City Council,” Mr. Rios said.