Case Summary
Southern Coalition for Social Justice filed this challenge to Texas's new 2021 state legislative and congressional maps with co-counsel from Texas ACLU, AALDEF, and Brennan Center on behalf of four non-profits (Fair Maps Texas Action Committee, OCA-Greater Houston, North Texas Chapter of the Asian Pacific Islander Americans Public Affairs Association, and Emgage) as well as 13 individuals (Khanay Turner, Angela Rainey, Austin Ruiz, Aya Eneli, Sofia Sheikh, Jennifer Cazares, Niloufar Hafizi, Lakshmi Ramakrishnan, Amatulla Contractor, Deborah Chen, Arthur Resa, Sumita Ghosh, and Anand Krishnaswamy).
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas (Austin Division), the lawsuit alleges the new voting maps intentionally dilute the voting power of Texans of color, specifically Black, Latinx and Asian American, and Pacific Islander voters, in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and the 14th and 15th Amendments. The lawsuit asks the court to block the use of the current maps and order the creation of new maps that do not dilute minority voting strength.
The case has been consolidated with eight other redistricting lawsuits filed in the state of Texas, and transferred to the United States District Court in the Western District of Texas (El Paso Division). Many consolidated cases went to trial in May of 2025.
Why it's Important
Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, Texas has not gone a single decade without a federal court finding that the state had violated federal protections for voters of color. In 2021, Texas enacted new state legislative and congressional districts that repeat the Legislature's past mistakes as each plan discriminates against voters of color by failing to create coalition districts mandated by Section 2 of the VRA, intentionally dividing cohesive communities of Black and brown voters into several districts, and otherwise diluting the voting power of Black and brown voters.
As the complaint documents, in areas like Fort Bend County, a diverse region near Houston, Texas, AAPI communities are cracked "with almost surgical precision," depriving them of an equal opportunity to elect their candidates of choice.
