Civil Rights Group Sues Texas Over New Maps
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Friday, Nov. 5, another lawsuit was filed in federal court against Texas’ new maps enacted following the release of 2020 census data. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Texas State Conference of the NAACP, specifically challenges the Lone Star State’s new legislative and congressional maps for intentionally diluting the voting strength of voters of color. This is the sixth lawsuit to be filed challenging the results of Texas’ most recent round of redistricting and the fifth filed in federal court.
The lawsuit argues that the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature improperly used race as the predominant factor in drawing the Texas House, Texas Senate and U.S. Congress maps and, as a result, the voting power of Texans of color was intentionally diluted. Further, despite the fact that 95% of Texas’ population growth since 2010 came from communities of color, the complaint alleges that the Legislature purposefully ignored this growth when drawing new districts, “instead diluting the votes of Black, Hispanic, and Asian voters in specific regions that witnessed significant POC growth in the past decade and reducing opportunities for voters of color to elect candidates of their choice across the state.” The complaint argues that the new “maps ensure that, contrary to what should occur given their dwindling population, white voters will maintain control of the state legislature and the congressional delegation for the foreseeable future, at the expense of providing voters of color an opportunity to elect candidates of their preference.” The suit asks the court to find that the challenged maps violate the 14th and 15th Amendments and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and order the creation of new maps that allow voters of color to elect their candidates of choice.