The NAACP and a lawyers’ civil rights group sued Texas, alleging the state’s new congressional map violates the Voting Rights Act.
The Voting Rights Act prohibits a practice known as “racial gerrymandering,” or the act of redistricting to dilute or concentrate the voting power of minority voters based on their race.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) is expected to sign the map, which was passed by Texas Republicans in both chambers of the state legislature in an effort to garner five more Republican House seats. Democrats have furiously opposed the effort in the state and beyond.
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson believes it is “quite obvious” that the mid-decade redistricting effort is “racially motivated.”
“The state of Texas is only 40% white, but white voters control over 73% of the state’s congressional seats,” he said in a statement. “It’s quite obvious that Texas’s effort to redistrict mid-decade, before next year’s midterm elections, is racially motivated,” he added.
“The state’s intent here is to reduce the members of Congress who represent Black communities, and that, in and of itself, is unconstitutional.”
The head of the lawyers’ group, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said the map is “intentionally harmful” and “discriminatory.”
“Black and Brown voters in Texas deserve better. They are legally and constitutionally entitled to fair representation,” Damon T. Hewitt, president and executive director of the group, said. “These maps do the opposite, and they must not stand.”
Questioning congressional maps on the basis of race has been successful in the past and recently.
In 2022, civil rights groups sued Mississippi over the lines it used to elect its Supreme Court. They alleged the lines constituted a violation of the Voting Rights Act and a racial gerrymander.
A federal court ruled this month that Mississippi’s Supreme Court district lines must be redrawn to allow the state’s black population equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.
TEXAS SENATE PASSES GOP REDISTRICTING MAPS, SENDING TO ABBOTT FOR FINAL APPROVAL
But there’s speculation that the Voting Rights Act could be under attack. The Supreme Court will examine the act’s constitutionality in a Louisiana redistricting case in arguments on Oct. 15.
If the Voting Rights Act is struck down, it will likely endanger several Democratic-held seats nationwide. It would allow Republicans in states like Louisiana and Missouri to redistrict without racial restrictions in seats held by House representatives like Reps. Wesley Bell (D-MO) and Troy Carter (D-LA).