Hours after the Texas Senate approved a new congressional map early Saturday morning that more heavily favors Republicans — legislation Gov. Greg Abbott plans to “swiftly” sign into law — a lawsuit against the governor was filed, alleging that the redrawn districts are racially discriminatory.
The 67-page complaint against Abbott and Secretary of State Jane Nelson supplements legal action filed by LULAC in 2021 challenging the state’s original maps and argues that redrawing districts mid-decade is unconstitutional…
Lawyers’ Committee:
Today, the Texas NAACP, represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in their ongoing lawsuit against the state of Texas, challenging its recently passed congressional maps for illegal, racial gerrymandering. The maps bulldoze important majority-minority districts and dilute the ability for Black and Brown communities to pick their political representation fairly.
The Texas NAACP and Lawyers’ Committee originally filed the case in 2021 regarding Texas’ redistricting plan for Congress, as well as the state Senate and House, arguing that multiple districts at all levels—principally in the Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston areas—intentionally discriminate against people of color.
In July of this year, the Department of Justice sent Texas Governor Greg Abbott a letter arguing that four Democratic districts—three of them coalition, or synonymously, majority-minority districts—were racially gerrymandered and that the Fifth Circuit had declared coalition districts unconstitutional. While this was a misstatement and blatant misinterpretation of the law, it still instructed Texas to redraw its maps, and Governor Abbott obliged by adding redistricting to the legislative agenda, claiming the state no longer needed coalition districts.
Now, with the passage of the new maps, the Texas Legislature doubles down on its original gerrymander, seeking to dismantle majority Black and Brown communities and weaken their political power for the years to come, and critically, ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.