In an Aug. 1 decision over redistricting of county commission seats in Galveston, Texas, the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has issued a decision that stops the political misuse of the
Voting Rights Act by Democrats and their allies to create voting districts loyal to the Democratic Party instead of protecting the voting rights of minorities. This decision may also affect the political makeup of Congress and state legislatures in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas—the states within the jurisdiction of the 5th Circuit—moving dozens of seats from Democrat to Republican.
In
Petteway v. Galveston County, the full appeals court concluded that Section 2 of the
Voting Rights Act does not protect or “authorize coalition claims, either expressly or by implication.” Coalition districts are districts in which no single minority group constitutes a majority of the voters. Instead, in those districts, there is a combination of different minority racial, ethnic, or language groups that make up a majority of voters.
The citizen population of Galveston County is 58% white, 22.5% Hispanic, and 12.5% black. Although the black population is concentrated in the center of the county, the
Hispanic population is evenly dispersed throughout. The county commission consists of five seats: four elected from specific districts and one elected at-large. Neither the black nor the Hispanic population of Galveston County is large enough and concentrated enough to draw a single commission district in which either group constitutes a majority of the voters in that particular district.
As a result, in 1991, the county drew one coalition district that combined the black and Hispanic population in one district, which was represented by a black Democrat as of 2021. The other seats were all held by Republicans, including a black Republican. However, in the 2021 redistricting, the county eliminated the coalition district, which had a black citizen population of 31% and a
Hispanic citizen population of 24%.
The NAACP and the Justice Department led by Attorney General Merrick Garland, along with a number of individual plaintiffs, sued Galveston claiming that this was a violation of federal law because coalition districts are required by Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
But the appeals court disagreed, concluding that minority coalition claims are inconsistent with the clear text of Section 2 and “Supreme Court cases rejecting similar ‘sub-majority’ vote dilution claims.”
To understand this holding, one has to look at the actual text of Section 2. It forbids the use of any voting practice or procedure that “results in a denial or abridgment of the right of any citizen … to vote on account of race or color, or in contravention of [the provisions protecting language minorities].” A violation is shown if the election process is “not equally open to participation by members of a class of citizens” defined by race, color, or inclusion in a language minority, “in that its members have less opportunity to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.”