Texas Is Attempting To Gerrymander 5 Democrats Out Of Office But Louisiana Could Be The Actual Lynchpin

The first Sunday afternoon in August, Texas Democrats fled the state of Texas so that the state legislature would not have the quorum needed to vote on the attempt to redraw the voting districts that would deeply favor Republicans, and simultaneously remove Democrats from their elected seats.

Representative Jasmine Crockett, for instance, would no longer reside in the district she currently represents.The new map comes at the behest of President Trump, who requested Texas redraw maps after Trump stated that the GOP is “entitled” to 5 more seats in Texas.  Pundits argue that this is an attempt to stack the odds of maintaining control of the House, and counter the president’s diminishing popularity as the consequences of his policies begin to impact Americans before the midterms.

Greg Abbot, in a purely symbolic move, had arrest warrants issued for the legislators, and threaten to have them removed from office

California Governor Gavin Newson and other Democratic governors have countered with their own threats to redraw Republican seats in retaliation.Advocates are also calling for a boycott of beef, in attempt to sway one the state’s largest group of donors into pressuring the GOP not to pass these maps.

It is certainly a an escalating situation that needs to be followed, but flying under the radar is an actual, dangerous precedent-setting case about to be heard before the Supreme Court.

On Friday, the Court asked for new briefs in this case to help them decide whether Louisiana’s attempt to abide by the Voting Rights Act violate the Constitution?

The Voting Rights Act has been chipped away at since the Supreme Court in 2013 handed down a decision that said the rules surrounding pre-clearance requirements were 40 years old and in need of updating to meet the needs of modern times.Cue the onslaught of gerrymandering, voter roll purges, and polling locations closing.

Lousiana adopted a congressional map after the 2020 census that included just one Black-majority congressional district. Though census data showed that the state is now at least one-third Black. Advocacy groups have been fighting the immense tide of voter suppression, through the courts, and found that Louisiana had gerrymandered their districts unfairly, the maps were redrawn to comply with the 1965 VRA, and the current map in effect now has two majority-Black districts, for the first time in years.

Then a group of voters and voting rights groups successfully challenged the map and obtained a federal court order that the map likely violated the VRA. State legislators then adopted the current map, which contains a second Black-majority district.

A group of 12 self-identified “non-African American voters” launched their own challenge to the state’s map, arguing that this time it violated the Constitution by prioritizing race.

A ruling overturning the current map could result in Republicans picking up an additional congressional seat in Louisiana. The state’s two majority-Black districts are both represented by Democrats, while the other four districts are represented by Republicans.

But if the court issues a sweeping decision that curtails or outlaws the use of race-based redistricting as a method of protecting minority voting power, the effects will spread far beyond Louisiana.

“What the Court seems to be asking, without directly saying it, is whether Section 2 of the VRA, at least as to how it has been applied to require the creation of majority-minority districts in some circumstances, violates a colorblind understanding of the Constitution,” Rick Hasen, a professor at UCLA Law, wrote on his blog Friday. “The stakes here are enormous.”

The second round of arguments has not yet been scheduled, but it could happen before the midterms, meaning the Texas attempt of voter suppression may be just the beginning.