Texas Gerrymandering Case Moves to the Supreme Court

by Aaron Credeur: The Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday in a redistricting case involving Texas congressional and state legislative maps.

The case comes after the state of Texas appealed a San Antonio District Court's ruling that decided that congressional and local district maps were gerrymandered in a way that discriminates against black and Latino voters.

Last year, the lower court panel of three judges found that the Texas district map "intentionally diluted the Latino vote" according to ABC News. The court argued that the map violates the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment.

Arguments on Tuesday were designed to determine whether the Supreme Court has jurisdiction in the case.

The map in question originated when Texas courts rejected a previous map designed to benefit the Republican-controlled legislature, establishing a temporary map for the 2012 election that was later enacted permanently.

Chief Justice John Roberts said that the argument from the state that the court-ordered map is legitimate "seems a strong argument."

The case represents the potential for a standard-setting decision on political and racial gerrymandering.

"If the court rules against Texas, the justices would be saying that the Republican-controlled legislature had an improper racial motive," Josh Douglas, an election law expert at the University of Kentucky College of Law, said, according to CNN.

While no clear direction on the decision emerged from Tuesday's arguments, conservative members of the court seemed to side with Roberts in favor of the state in a case that could end up split along ideological lines.

The decision on the case is expected in June, but regardless of the court's verdict, states will have to redraw district lines after the 2020 census.

Douglas stressed that as the nation prepares to return to the drawing boards for state maps, the Texas case could set an important precedent moving forward.

"Depending on the court's ruling, the Texas case could have a meaningful impact on how states all over the country draw their next maps," he explained.
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Aaron Credeur is a News Fellow at IJR

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