Last summer, Texas lawmakers redrew the state’s congressional map to add more GOP seats. The unusual mid-decade redistricting effort prompted some Republican lawmakers to dream even bigger.
“When the U.S. Supreme Court rules in the Louisiana v. Callais case that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional, Texas will take up redistricting again (Congressional, Texas Senate and Texas House),” Rep. David Spiller, R-Jacksboro, posted on social media. “Get ready. It’s coming.”
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued the ruling Spiller had been waiting for. The court did not entirely eliminate Section 2, the law’s key holding that prohibits vote dilution based on race, but it did make it much harder to win a case on those grounds. The court’s conservative majority declared that plaintiffs must now prove that mapmakers intentionally diluted the voting power of a racial group. This higher bar, Justice Elena Kagan said in her dissent, would eliminate the “lion’s share” of challenges under Section 2.
