WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has chiseled away at federal protections aimed at restricting racial bias in political mapmaking for years, which is why it was such a surprise earlier this month when justices ruled in favor of Black voters who challenged Alabama’s legislative lines. That case could have major implications across the country, including in Texas, which has pending lawsuits over how state lawmakers redrew the lines.  

As Texans took to the polls over the past two years, some civil rights groups say they were voting under legislative maps that were not fair. Republican mapmakers in Texas insisted the lines were drawn “race blind,” but there has been nearly a dozen lawsuits since 2021 challenging them.

“Those new political maps should have reflected growth in the minority community, and those maps didn't,” said Nina Perales, vice president for litigation at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “In fact, in some places, the maps, the new maps, reduced the amount of political strength that minority voters have in the state.”  

Now, after a surprising Supreme Court ruling, some of those Texas civil rights groups are encouraged. Justices sided with Black voters in a congressional redistricting case out of Alabama and preserved provisions in the landmark Voting Rights Act that barred racial discrimination.

“It's very important for political opportunity to keep up, and in places in the state where Latinos and Anglos tend to prefer different candidates. The only way for Latinos to be able to elect their candidate of choice is when the political maps respect Latino neighborhoods and don't cut them up,” Perales told Spectrum News.

Voting rights advocates point to how Texas gained two new congressional districts due to the explosive growth driven by people of color, yet the new districts were drawn majority white. Texas is also being challenged over its state legislative maps and board of education maps.

“There's some evidence in Texas that there is one  —  a cohesive minority group , too  — that this cohesive minority group does, in fact, vote in a very different way than whites, and that could be the basis of challenging some of the redistricting plans,” said Bob Stein, a political science professor at Rice University and expert on voting and elections.  

Alabama lawmakers will now have to redraw their maps to add another Black majority congressional district ahead of next year’s elections. Civil rights groups and voting rights advocates ultimately want that to happen across the different statewide districts in Texas, too.

“2024 is around the corner, but it's possible,” said Stein. “I think the implications here may be for lower-level governments, school board, city councils, county commissioner courts.”

This possibility of a new Texas map is what some say would better represent the state's diversity.

CORRECTION: This story was updated to correct the organization's name to Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. (6/20/2023)