Gary Bledsoe of the Texas NAACP issued the following statement last week when a federal court rejected the GOP’s drawn district maps.
“We are heartened by the decision of the 3 Judge Panel sitting in D.C. today. Notably they were a bipartisan panel and they looked at the evidence objectively with no bias in regards to the law and an obvious intention to make whatever decision was justified by the facts. They put individual and partisan interests aside in fashioning this opinion and that is notable. Without question this opinion makes it clear that there is a continuing need for the Voting Rights Act and particularly Section 5. It is essential that Judges rise above individual or partisan interests like this because only such judicial statesmanship can save us from tyranny.
This is a notable opinion in that the Judges believed that there was intentional discrimination in the manner that the State drew the Congressional districts for each of Texas African-American Representatives. The 3 Judge panel quoted each of the 3 African-American Congresspersons regarding how the economic engines were taken from their districts as well as how their Congressional offices were all taken out of the districts drawn for them by the Legislature. Of important note to the Judges was the fact that all white Congresspersons maintained their districts which was quite a contrast.”
