The NAACP and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging Texas’ new congressional district maps, alleging they violate the Voting Rights Act.
“The lawsuit contends that Texas has engaged in racial gerrymandering to prevent Black voters from electing candidates of their choice,” Derrick Johnson, the NAACP’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “It’s quite obvious that Texas’s effort to redistrict mid-decade, before next year’s midterm elections, is racially motivated. The state’s intent here is to reduce the members of Congress who represent Black communities, and that, in and of itself, is unconstitutional.”
Since the Voting Rights Act was adopted, the state of Texas has been found to have discriminated against minority citizens after every cycle of redistricting, the NAACP claimed.
In Tuesday’s release, the NAACP called on other states to act immediately by updating their congressional maps in response. After Texas announced its plans to redraw its maps in an attempt to take five seats away from Democrats, California lawmakers pushed through a referendum that residents will vote on in November to determine whether the state redraws its maps as well. Governors in New York, Illinois and Maryland have expressed interest in following suit.
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Gov. Greg Abbott has yet to sign Texas’ new maps into law.
The partisan, mid-decade redistricting effort made it through the Texas House of Representatives on Aug. 20 after a weeks-long Democratic walkout that began on Aug. 3.
Democratic state House members fled to Illinois and New York, where they stayed despite threats of imprisonment, fines and having their seats vacated. The standoff ended after a little more than two weeks, only after Gov. Gavin Newsom of California pledged to redraw his state’s maps to offset Democrats’ losses in Texas.
House Democrats returned to Texas on Aug. 18, where they were placed under strict monitoring by state police, forcing some to sleep in the state Capitol.
Moving forward, Democrats have said they would focus their protest efforts on lawsuits.
“Next step is the courts,” Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, posted to X last week. “We will not stop.”
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