Federal law has long protected Black voters and Hispanic voters by pushing states to carve out districts so they can elect candidates of their choice.
Now, a case winding its way through the federal courts is testing the boundaries of the idea. Civil rights groups argue that Black and Hispanic voters should be lumped together to form a minority coalition that qualifies for Voting Rights Act protection.
For three decades, Galveston County, Texas, had a county commissioner seat representing a majority-minority population of Black and Hispanic voters combined. The county eliminated the seat in the latest redistricting, sparking a federal lawsuit.
All sides agree that the number of either Black residents or Hispanic residents is insufficient to earn a majority district under the Voting Rights Act. Combined, they account for 38%, which would be enough if they were considered a coalition.
A district judge ruled against the county’s map, and things got messy.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a quick ruling upholding the lower court judge’s decision. They said the ruling followed the circuit’s precedent but added that the precedent was wrong. They asked the entire 5th Circuit to rehear the case.
The full court agreed and said Galveston could use the contested map while the matter was being settled. The Supreme Court has allowed that decision to stand.
J. Christian Adams, a former Justice Department voting rights attorney and now president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, said the case could settle questions about coalition districts.
“Should the Voting Rights Act restore equal opportunity, or does it hand the Democrats a racial weapon?” Mr. Adams said. “That is why this is a huge deal.”
He said circuit courts of appeal are divided, making the case ripe for the justices.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, created to counter a century’s worth of discrimination against Black voters, urged legislatures to create majority-minority districts where voters could have better-than-even chances of electing candidates of their choice in racially polarized areas.
That was a response to the practice of spreading racial minorities among districts where primarily White residents would dilute their vote.
The Voting Rights Act has proved successful. Roughly 30% of seats in Congress represent districts where White voters are not a majority.
Racial politics have become more complicated in the past six decades, raising questions about who qualifies for the majority-minority treatment.
A case in Georgia is testing a Hispanic-Black-Asian American coalition district.
The Galveston County population in 2020 was nearly 55% White, 25% Hispanic and 13% Black.
The old Precinct 3, the one in question, would have been 58% Black and Hispanic. The way the county redrew the precinct reduced the number to 28%, the lowest of any of the precincts.
District Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown, a Trump appointee to the bench, ruled that the county was riven by racially polarized voting, with Black and Hispanic voters usually lining up against “Anglo” voters. Making the White voters a majority in all precincts would thwart the minority voters, he ruled.
He said it was “stunning how completely the county extinguished” Black and Hispanic input in the redistricting, and he found the process “mean-spirited” and “egregious.”
“This is not a typical redistricting case. What happened here was stark and jarring,” he wrote.
Galveston’s attorneys say the Black and Hispanic populations are too dispersed to shoehorn in a specific district for them.
“There is no dispute that the Black and Latino communities are distinct minority groups in Galveston County. Black and Latino residents do not generally live in the same areas,” the attorneys told the Supreme Court in a recent filing.
That dispersion is driving new questions about the Voting Rights Act.
Civil rights advocates say coalition districts will become increasingly important in preserving minorities’ voting power as demographics change and communities desegregate.
Opponents question the similarities between a Hispanic son of immigrants and a great-great-great-grandson of an enslaved Black person.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that legislatures can draw coalition districts but did not say the Voting Rights Act requires them, said Adam Kincaid, president and executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust.
He said the Supreme Court’s ruling for the 5th Circuit’s decision to leave Galveston’s current map in place is telling.
“These coalition districts are probably not going to be something that is blessed at all across the federal judiciary pretty soon,” he said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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