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On Wednesday, August 31, legal counsel representing plaintiffs in the case Fair Maps Texas Action Committee, et al., v. Abbott, et al. released a joint statement responding to the federal District Court’s postponement on Tuesday of the Texas Redistricting trial scheduled to begin on September 28, 2022. The court said that it would announce a new trial date at a future time.
The following statement can be attributed to the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, the ACLU of Texas, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law:
“The order from the District Court postponing the scheduled start of trial next month is the direct result of Texas’s delay tactics, designed to keep the redistricting process shrouded in secrecy. State leadership, including Governor Greg Abbott and key legislators, have resisted transparency at every turn. By attempting to conceal key documents and the testimony of state lawmakers responsible for drawing the maps, the state is hiding its motive for drawing maps that increase white voting power and discriminate against communities of color.
“Texans deserve transparency and accountability from their leaders, and fair, nondiscriminatory, and representative voting maps. The future of multiracial democracy is at stake. The fight for fair maps in advance of the 2024 election is far from over.”
Background
On November 16, 2021, civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit challenging new Texas state legislative and Congressional redistricting plans as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders violating both the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution. The suit detailed an inadequate redistricting process lacking transparency, which led to discriminatory voting maps that dilute the political power of communities of color, particularly Black, Latino, and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters.