Voters, Advocates Ask Court to Block Texas Gerrymander
Two separate groups of plaintiffs filed motions Sunday and Monday in federal court seeking to block Texas’ new congressional map from going into effect.
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Two separate groups of plaintiffs filed motions Sunday and Monday in federal court seeking to block Texas’ new congressional map from going into effect.
Hours after Texas lawmakers approved a new gerrymandered congressional map Saturday morning, Texans asked a court to block it.
The plaintiffs* filed an amended complaint in an ongoing challenge to the electoral districts Texas drew in 2021 that alleged that those maps violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting power of Latino communities.
Texas Republicans cleared the final legislative hurdle for their extreme mid-decade gerrymander, as the Senate voted to approve House Bill 4.
State Sen. Phil King, the Republican chair of the Senate redistricting committee, revealed he’s spoken with Adam Kincaid, the national GOP’s leading map-maker, three times this summer.
Texas Democratic lawmakers returned this week from a two-week quorum break, but Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton are still seeking to remove them from office.
The Texas Senate redistricting committee in a 5-3 vote along party lines approved the state’s proposed new congressional map, likely teeing up the map to receive final approval when the full Senate convenes late Thursday.
The Texas House voted to move forward with a new congressional map – as Democrats continued to seek ways to resist.
Collier dialed into the Zoom call from a Capitol restroom as the floor debate over the new maps echoed in the background. “I’ll be damned if I let [Republicans] use petty intimidation tactics to silence my voters. They sent me here to fight, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” she said. “I represent a majority Black and brown district and it’ll be my constituents, people who look like me, that will be harmed.”
Voting rights advocates fighting Texas’ existing congressional map are preparing to challenge the state’s latest gerrymander as soon as it goes into law. The plaintiffs challenging the state’s 2021 map as a racial gerrymander filed a motion Monday asking to schedule a hearing in September at which they will argue that the court should block […]
Texas Republicans advanced their mid-decade gerrymander as a House committee voted to send the measure to the full chamber for consideration.