FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 11, 2017
CONTACT:
Carolyn Fiddler
National Communications Director
[email protected]
DLCC Lauds Texas Anti-GOP Gerrymandering Ruling
Federal Court Deals Latest Blow to Republicans’ Use of Race to Silence Voters
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee Executive Director Jessica Post applauded the decision in Perez v. Abbott, a suit against Texas Republican lawmakers’ unconstitutional use of racial gerrymandering that resulted in the invalidation of four congressional districts: TX-23, TX-26, TX-27, and TX 35.
“Texas Republicans illegally diluted the voices of Hispanic voters, and this ruling is an important step towards giving all Texans fair representation,” said Post. “The Texas congressional map engineered by Republican legislators diminished the voices of specific groups of voters just to protect GOP power. This court decision, along with recent rulings in Virginia, Alabama, and Wisconsin, mark important progress in the fight to protect and enfranchise all voters and are blows against the artificial Republican majorities the GOP created at minority voters’ expense.
“Together, these decisions serve as incontrovertible evidence that Republicans cannot be trusted to protect voters’ rights in the next round of redistricting,” Post continued. “DLCC continues our crucial fight to elect more Democratic lawmakers to dislodge map-drawing pens from the discriminatory grip of the GOP.”
Last night’s ruling is the latest in a series of legal blows to GOP gerrymandering across the country. Earlier this month, SCOTUS dealt a blow to Virginia Republican lawmakers’ unconstitutional use of racial gerrymandering to dilute the influence of African-American voters. A Wisconsin decision that ruled the state’s Assembly districts to be unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders calls for new maps to be drawn by November 1, 2017 (it has been appealed to SCOTUS). In late January, a three-judge panel in the 11th Circuit declared 12 of Alabama’s legislative districts (nine House, three Senate) to be unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. We await SCOTUS’s decision regarding whether to take up the North Carolina redistricting case, where 28 legislative districts were found to be unconstitutionally racially gerrymandered. Congressional districts in North Carolina and Virginia have already been struck down for the same reason.
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