Appeals court narrows Voting Rights Act’s scope for redistricting cases in the South

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals narrowed the scope of the Voting Rights Act for redistricting cases in a large swath of the South, ruling against the Justice Department and voters of color who had challenged Galveston, Texas’s county commission map for how it been redrawn to dismantle a district where minorities made up a majority of the population.

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals narrowed the scope of the Voting Rights Act for redistricting cases in a large swath of the South, ruling against the Justice Department and voters of color who had challenged Galveston, Texas’s county commission map for how it been redrawn to dismantle a district where minorities made up a majority of the population. The conservative appeals court on Thursday reversed its previous precedent that allowed multiple minority groups to join together in challenges to redistricting plans alleged to be discriminatory under the VRA. Circuit Judge Edith Jones, a Reagan appointee, wrote in the majority opinion that so-called coalition districts are “inconsistent with the text” of the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court has not directly addressed the question of coalition districts and the Voting Rights Act. Other circuit courts have disagreed over whether the landmark civil rights law contemplated such legal challenges by multi-racial coalitions. Jones wrote that the VRA “has accomplished its original purposes with great success” and asserted that Thursday’s ruling “has accomplished its original purposes with great success.” In the Galveston case, the county was accused of violating the Voting Rights Act by breaking up a commission district that had grouped together Black and Hispanic communities, which together make up 39% of the county’s population and largely support Democrats. Under the disputed plan, White people – who overwhelming support Republicans in Galveston – now are the majority in all four commission districts.