Texas Scorecard by Erin Anderson August 5, 2024
The Fifth Circuit’s decision to eliminate coalition districts could transform how electoral maps are drawn.Galveston County just won a major redistricting case that could shift dozens of political seats in Texas and elsewhere from Democrats to Republicans, at all levels of government.
Thursday’s decision by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that federal law does not protect “coalition” districts created by “opportunistic political combinations” of voters from different minority groups.
The ruling overturns nearly four decades of precedent in the appellate court, which has jurisdiction over Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
Public Interest Legal Foundation, representing Galveston County in the case, called the ruling “a huge win… to stop the political weaponization of the Voting Rights Act.”
The redistricting case challenged how the appellate court previously interpreted Section 2 of the VRA which Democrats were misusing for partisan political advantage.
PILF attorneys argued that the Voting Rights Act was meant to protect individual minority groups’ right to participate in elections, not guarantee Democrats will be elected.
More:
https://texasscorecard.com/state/huge-win-in-galveston-redistricting-case-stops-democrats-weaponization-of-voting-rights-act/
