Case Summary
Southern Coalition for Social Justice challenged Texas’s congressional and state house redistricting after the 2010 census on behalf of the Texas State Conference of the NAACP and five individuals (Rev. Bill Lawson, Howard Jefferson, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Sheila Jackson-Lee, and Alexander Green). In their complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, plaintiffs alleged Texas's 2011 and 2013 maps were intentionally racially discriminatory in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act. The action was filed with co-counsel Gary Bledsoe, Robert Notzon, and the NAACP.
The Supreme Court reversed and remanded an initial trial court order striking down districts a intentionally discriminatory on June 25, 2018. On August 2, 2019, the trial court issued an Amended Final Judgment finding several specific district lines violated the Voting Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment.
Why it's Important
Voters seeking to challenge legislative enactments as intentionally discriminatory must overcome a presumption of good faith by the legislature.
Case Documents
Related Media
SCSJ at the U.S. Supreme Court
DC Federal Court rules that Texas’ statewide redistricting maps violate the Voting Rights Act.
Texas Legislative Districts Found Unconstitutional by Federal Court
Other Related Cases
State of Louisiana v. Phillip Callais, et al.
The Louisiana State Legislature created a new congressional map in 2024 with two majority-Black districts after a prior map was struck down.
Learn MoreAlexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP
SCSJ and a coalition of civil rights groups called upon the U.S. Supreme Court as amici curiae to affirm that South Carolina’s congressional map is racially gerrymandered, in violation of the 14th Amendment.
Learn MoreT.N. NAACP v. Lee
SCSJ filed this challenge to Tennessee’s congressional and state Senate districts on behalf of five organizations, challenging the new voting plans as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.
Learn More