The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a challenge to Texas state legislative maps that critics say intentionally dilute minority voting power and result in an illegal racial gerrymander.
At the center of the dispute is Senate District 10, which is centered in Fort Worth in Tarrant County. Challengers argued the map was redrawn to make it more Republican and “more Anglo.”
A panel of three judges on a district court conducted four days of hearings and held that although the new state Senate map may “disproportionately affect minority voters” in Tarrant County, and although the legislature may have given “pretextual reasons” for its redistricting decisions, the challengers could point to no evidence indicating that the legislature’s “true intent was racial.”