The NAACP, America’s largest civil rights group, has sued to block a new congressional map in Texas, calling it “intentionally harmful and discriminatory.”
Republicans successfully pushed for the new map in what they claim is a political effort to gain five more seats in Congress before the midterm elections, which President Donald Trump told CNBC they are “entitled to.”
After the Texas House and Senate passed the map last week, Governor Greg Abbott said it would be “swiftly signed into law.” New maps are usually drawn every 10 years with the most recent census data.
The NAACP filed a lawsuit in Texas on Tuesday, accusing the state of engaging in racial gerrymandering. The civil rights group claims the new map violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by disenfranchising Black voters.
"The Trump administration told Texas in no uncertain terms to create illegal, discriminatory maps, and Texas actively carried out the mandate. This is an intentionally harmful and discriminatory effort, and we must call it out as such,” Damon T. Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which filed the lawsuit in partnership with the NAACP, said in a statement.
Hewitt added: “Black and Brown voters in Texas deserve better. They are legally and constitutionally entitled to fair representation. These maps do the opposite, and they must not stand."
Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, called the new map “racially motivated.”
“The state's intent here is to reduce the members of Congress who represent Black communities, and that, in and of itself, is unconstitutional,” he said in a statement.
The Independent has reached out to Abbott’s office for comment.
The NAACP previously filed a lawsuit over Texas Republicans’ 2021 redistricting, accusing that map of being racially discriminatory. A trial in the case was held in May but a ruling is yet to be made.
In California, Governor Gavin Newsom has pushed to redraw the state’s congressional map for Democrats to gain five more seats — a move in direct response to Texas redistricting efforts. Californians will vote on whether to approve the new map in a November special election.
State Republicans have asked the California Supreme Court to block the special election, claiming the move, in part, takes away power from the state’s independent redistricting commission.
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