DOJ Sues Texas for Racist Voting Redistricting
The lawsuit asks the court to bar Texas from holding elections under the redrawn districts and to instruct lawmakers to devise new maps that comply with federal law.
Landwebs
The Justice Department has sued Texas alleging that Republican state lawmakers discriminated against Latinos and other minorities when they approved new congressional and state legislative districts that increased the power of White voters, reports The Washington Post. The lawsuit marks the Biden administration’s first major legal action on redistricting and asks the court to bar Texas from holding elections under the redrawn districts and to instruct lawmakers to devise new maps that comply with federal law.
The 2020 Census showed that the Texas population had grown dramatically over the past decade, by nearly 4 million people. Most of that growth was among minority populations, with White Texans accounting for only about 5 percent of the increase. The growth means that the number of Texas seats in the U.S. House of Representatives will rise from 36 to 38. Rather than reflect the surging Latino voting strength in the state, the Justice Department argues, the new districts would unfairly and illegally dilute their representation. Texas GOP leaders have previously said the redrawn maps were approved by lawyers who determined that the districts complied with voting laws and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton posted a tweet calling the lawsuit “absurd” and “the Biden Administration’s latest ploy to control Texas voters.”
