In a case that has been pending since June of 2011, the state of Texas' voting districts were brought before a federal court because they do not comply with the federal Voting Rights Act. In a 154-page opinion, the US District Court in Washington reported that Texas' state prosecutors did not prove that Texas lawmakers did not draw the new congressional and state Senate districts "without discriminatory purposes" as outlined in the act (Fox News). .
After Texas redrew its boundaries, it received four additional US House seats because of its growing population, which is largely composed of minorities. Two of the congressional seats were awarded to Republican districts while the other two were awarded to Democratic districts. However, the Texas Legislature did not clear the redrawn maps by the Justice department, which automatically discredits them under the Voting Rights Act. The act targets Texas and eight other southern states that have a history of racial bias and requires them to have their maps approved by the Justice Department (Fox News). .
Because they were not first cleared by the Justice Department, the maps drawn by the Legislature in 2011 violate the act and cannot, therefore, be used in upcoming elections. For the presidential elections in November, a San Antonio federal court produced interim maps to be used in the short term. The capitol's court rulings will be used to redraw official maps for the next presidential election in 2014 (Fox News).
In an effort to bypass the Justice Department, Texas chose to have their maps pre-cleared by a court in Washington DC. The DC federal court found the maps in violation of the act. Nina Perales, attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a group that sued Texas because of the maps, said their plan backfired. "It seems that Texas risked and lost more by going to the DC court than by going to DOJ," she said.
