No one should think that Texas Republican leaders have any respect for basic minority voting rights or any intention of sincerely trying to win the support of African American or Hispanic Texans, even though African Americans and Hispanics combined make up a majority of our State’s population.
Earlier today, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a formal advisory with the US Federal Court in San Antonio making clear that Texas Republicans are hoping that, and counting on, the US Supreme Court overturning Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, giving Texas Republicans a chance to use their discriminatory redistricting plans.
The key passage from the Texas GOP advisory reads:
“If the Supreme Court overturns Section 5 and vacates the district court’s order in Texas v. United States, the State’s redistricting plans will be in effect immediately, and the plaintiffs’ claims under the Constitution and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act challenging those plans will become ripe for final adjudication by this Court. The Court would no longer have the authority to remedy any Section 5 violations, even those previously identified by the D.C. Court.”
Texas is the only state in the entire nation that passed Legislative and Congressional redistricting plans that were drawn to intentionally discriminate against minority citizens. A three-judge federal panel – made up of two judges appointed by Republican Presidents and one appointed by a Democratic President – unanimously ruled that Texas Republican leaders intentionally discriminated against Latino and African American Texas citizens.
Think about that for a second – Republican state leaders in Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana and Alabama all were somehow able to draw new district lines without discriminating against their African American and Hispanic citizens. Texas leaders knowingly and shamelessly passed intentionally discriminatory plans.
Right now, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, with the support of Rick Perry, David Dewhurst, Joe Straus and the Texas Republican Party itself, is asking the US Supreme Court to overturn key provisions of the US Voting Rights Act that protect minority voters against discrimination. Abbott has spent millions in Texas taxpayer funds defending discriminatory redistricting plans and arguing that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act be overturned.
Email Texas Speaker Joe Straus and Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and tell them to:
1. Stop using Texas tax dollars to kill the Voting Rights Act.
2. Order Greg Abbott to withdraw from all redistricting and voting rights litigation pending before the US Supreme Court.
