Justice Department sues Texas over new redistricting maps
Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland at a November news conference.
WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice sued Texas over new redistricting maps Monday, saying the plans discriminate against voters in the state’s booming Latino and Black populations.
The lawsuit, filed in the Western District of Texas, claims the state violates part of the Voting Rights Act. The lawsuit notes that the vast majority of Texas’ population growth over the last decade came from Black, Latino and Asian people, but the new maps that state Republicans drew doesn’t give any of these communities new opportunities to choose their own representatives.
The challenge asserts the commission ‘is betraying its founding charter — to take control of redistricting away from the California Legislature.’
Instead, the maps pack Black and Latino communities into bizarre-shaped districts — a Dallas-area one is referred to as a “sea horse” shape — while preserving safe seats for white Republicans.
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