Lines Drawn, Texas in Dispute

Lines Drawn, Texas in Dispute

Texas is now facing another voter-related lawsuit at the hands of the Justice Department, this time concerning the approval of new congressional and state legislative districts. Not being a stranger to lawsuits filed against them – recently, Texas was sued over discrimination due voting restrictions that would allegedly violate the civil rights of those with disabilities as well as older Americans – it is now being accused of redistricting new boundaries in favor of limiting the voting strength of minorities, which has risen significantly over the past few years.

This form of purposeful manipulating of the districts is commonly known as gerrymandering. The controversy surrounding gerrymandering is not a new one. A somewhat unsavory political tactic, gerrymandering has been implemented throughout American history. Typically used to provide an unfair advantage for a political party, the most commonly used tactics involve (1) diluting the voting strength of the opposing party by spreading their voters across multiple districts and (2) concentrating an opposing party’s voters into one district to weaken their voting strength in others. Texas is being accused of both.

This is chiefly evident in areas such as Dallas, where the lines were allegedly redrawn to exclude predominantly democratic-voting Black and Latino communities to ensure they could retain the Republican representation within the districts. The lawsuit filed by the Justice Department alleges, “The legislature refused to recognize the state’s growing minority electorate” and that “[a]lthough the Texas congressional delegation expanded from 36 to 38 seats, Texas designed the two new seats to have Anglo voting majorities.”

This is not the first time Texas has been accused of gerrymandering its way to an alleged violation of the Voting Rights Act. In fact, it has occurred at every redistricting process since the establishment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. The primary concern is Section 2 which prohibits the drawing of district boundaries for the specific purpose of limiting the voting power of minorities. Although at the moment Republican-controlled Texas is on the hotseat with the current accusations of Voting Rights Act violations, the convenient timing of this suit has not been lost on many. It comes at a tumultuous period where for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that it will not get involved in partisan redistricting disputes, both parties are vying for control through manipulation of the redistricting process. Illinois, in particular, is facing a very similar situation with one key difference: the accusation falls at the feet of the Democrats.

They are also in the midst of a lawsuit claiming very similar violations; specifically, whether the Democrats violated parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by gerrymandering the districts in a way that would, very similar to Texas, dilute the voting strength of minorities. In this instance, the newly drawn districts would decrease the amount of Republican representation within the state’s congressional delegation, effectively increasing Democratic power throughout the state. Ultimately, whether Democrat or Republican, the judge’s determination of if the Voting Rights Act was violated will be determined by a key factor: whether the group allegedly being discriminated against votes as a bloc – meaning together, united by a specific concern(s). In the case of Texas, this will be easier said than done. The primary concern being Latinos, who the suit identifies as the minority most significantly affected by the new map.

This becomes a unique area of interest primarily because although usually very liberal leaning, many Latino communities in Texas have shifted to Republican in the recent years. This would make proving that the community votes as a bloc a difficult task. Regarding whether Latinos in Texas vote as a block, Michael Li, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York, believes that Latino voting patterns should be analyzed over the course of several elections, not just based on 2020. In the end, it seems that the recent suit filed against Texas regarding the violation of the Voting Rights Act becomes less about the discrimination of minorities and more about the seizure or retaining of power by both political parties. As history provides us as far back as 1812 when Massachusetts was redistricted to the benefit of the Democratic-Republican Party, and at the cost of the Federalist Party, gerrymandering was a direct result of the Democratic- Republicans refusal to cede power to the opposition. If applied to today’s current affairs, it does not seem like much has changed.

Political parties will continue to implement practices such as gerrymandering to gain an advantage against one another. That being said, it is important to note that the redistricting process has always been a hot topic issue. It is a time of change, where the districts are redrawn to better reflect our growing, ever evolving communities. The idea is to create equal districts with equal populations, represented equally. It is through the intentional manipulation of this process where issues arise.