AUSTIN, Texas — In a federal lawsuit filed Monday, a Latino-rights organization argued that all four Texas redistricting plans must be thrown out because the Republican-drawn maps illegally and unconstitutionally dilute the voting strength of Latinos.
Coming out of the third special session of the Legislature, the maps setting new district boundaries for members of Congress, the Texas House, the Texas Senate and the State Board of Education have not yet been signed into law.
But the lawsuit by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund argued that court intervention is needed because Republican lawmakers drew maps that ignored robust gains in the state's Latino population.
The result, the lawsuit said, was political districts drawn in an intentionally discriminatory way to reduce Latino voting strength in areas across Texas.
"The new redistricting plans are an unlawful attempt to thwart the changing Texas electorate and should be struck down," said Nina Perales, MALDEF's vice president of litigation.
The 2020 census revealed a dramatic demographic shift in Texas, which grew by 4 million people in the previous decade. While white Texans accounted for only 5% of that growth, Latinos accounted for 50%, the Census Bureau reported.
"Based on recent demographic trends, the Texas State Data Center estimates that the Latino population of Texas will match the Anglo population in 2021," the lawsuit said.
But the new maps, instead of creating additional districts to give Latino voters a chance to elect their candidates of choice, illegally diluted their power by packing Hispanic Texans into heavily Democratic districts or splitting communities into majority white districts, the lawsuit said.
The result, according to the lawsuit filed in El Paso federal court, was political districts that reduced Latino voting strength "by making improper and excessive use of race in redistricting."
Republicans in the Legislature have said that all maps were drawn "blind" to race, with other factors taken into account, including which political party voters tend to support. That strategy, however, has caused legal trouble with past maps drawn to favor the Republican majority because most nonwhite voters in Texas tend to support Democrats — and drawing them into or out of districts can have a strong impact on racial makeup.
Monday's lawsuit is seeking a court order blocking the maps from being used in future elections, arguing that they are unconstitutional and violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
New maps must be drawn "that will not cancel out, minimize or dilute the voting strength of Latino voters in Texas," the lawsuit said.
Additional lawsuits challenging the maps as racially discriminatory are expected to follow.
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