Gerald Hanks
A federal court in San Antonio is ordering Texas to redefine the boundaries of two congressional districts, after ruling the state intentionally drew them to discriminate against minorities on two separate occasions.
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The three-judge panel unanimously ruled that District 27 in Corpus Christi and District 35 in Austin were drawn with the intent of discriminating against minority voters.
Last March, the panel ruled three congressional districts were drawn in 2011 so minority voters were left with a diminished impact.
This month’s ruling stated two of those districts were redrawn in 2013 with the same intent.
The ruling also stated the manner in which the districts were drawn violated the Voting Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment.
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“(T)he Legislature engaged in no deliberative process to remove any such (discriminatory) taint, and in fact intended any such taint to be maintained but be safe from remedy,” the ruling read. “The Legislature in 2014 intentionally furthered and continued the existing discrimination in the plans.”
Congressmen who won election in each of the districts, one Democrat and one Republican, pledged to run again in 2018 in their newly-redrawn districts; however, they maintain differing opinions on the necessity to redraw the boundaries.
Democrat Lloyd Doggett of District 35 described what the Republican-led Texas Legislature did in its redistricting efforts “was not just wrong, it was unconstitutional.”
Meanwhile, Republican Blake Farenthold of District 27 said the federal court made a mistake, and he expected the case to go to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he said the high court justices would “get it right.”
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stated his office would pursue the case to just that level:
“We look forward to asking the Supreme Court to decide whether Texas had discriminatory intent when relying on the district court.”
The other district in the March ruling, District 30 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, was not targeted for redrawing.
