DOJ Sues Texas Over Redistricting, Claims It Violates Voting Rights Act

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo by AL DRAGO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The Department of Justice is suing the state of Texas. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the legal action against the lone star state in a Monday press conference. He alleged Texas’ recent redistricting is discriminatory in nature. Garland claimed the action violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“The complaint we filed today alleges that Texas has violated Section 2 by creating redistricting plans that deny or abridge the rights of Latino or Black voters to vote on account of their race, color or language minority group,” stated the Attorney General.

Although there is no language explicitly singling out voters of any color in the state’s redistricting process, Garland and his team persist the action has racist intent. U.S. Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta accused Texas of participating in gerrymandering its two new congressional districts to favor white voters.

“Texas will gain two new congressional seats because of its population growth, almost all of which is due to growth in the state’s minority population,” she stated. “However, Texas has designed both those new seats to have white voting majorities. The Congressional plan also deliberately reconfigured a West Texas district to eliminate the opportunity for Latino voters to elect a representative of their choice.”

Gupta did not delve into the reasons why ethnic minorities would be moving to a supposedly racist state and, instead, claimed Texas was diminishing the number of minority-majority districts.

“And the State House plan eliminated Latino electoral opportunities by manipulating or eliminating districts where Latino communities previously had elected their preferred candidates,” she continued. “These redistricting plans will diminish the opportunity for Latino and Black voters in Texas to elect their preferred representatives.”

Some see the Justice Department’s move as being politically motivated to stop Texas from sending two additional Republican representatives to Washington D.C.

In the press conference, Garland failed to address child sex crimes committed by CIA operatives, his son-in-law profiting from critical race theory books or his own department’s targeting of concerned parents at school board meetings.