“Most” in this case means that the Supreme Court sided with Texas in Abbot v. Perez for 10 out of 11 disputed districts:
Extinguishing the possibility that Texas could be placed back under federal electoral supervision, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday pushed aside claims that lawmakers intentionally discriminated against voters of color when they enacted the state’s congressional and state House maps.
In a 5-4 vote, the high court threw out a lower court ruling that had found that lawmakers intentionally undercut the voting power of Hispanic and black voters, oftentimes to keep white incumbents in office. The Supreme Court found that the evidence was “plainly insufficient” to prove that the 2013 Legislature acted in “bad faith.”
The Supreme Court also ruled that all but one of the 11 congressional and state House districts that had been flagged as problematic could remain intact. The one exception was Fort Worth-based House District 90, which is occupied by Democratic Rep. Ramon Romero and was deemed an impermissible racial gerrymander because lawmakers illegally used race as the predominant factor in deciding its boundaries.
The decision also means that “preclearance” (i.e., Texas having to have all redistricting cleared by the federal government) is finally well and truly dead.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, with concurrences from justices Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas and Gorsuch.
Here’s the text of the decision.
As for House District 90, the text of the decision states that “On remand, the District Court will have to consider what if any remedy is appropriate at this time.” Since it’s already held by a democrat, expect the lower court’s enthusiasm for an immediate remedy to the issue to be tempered, and this late in the game, they might merely order that the issue be addressed following the 2020 census, which would fall to the 87th Texas legislature in 2021.
Tags: 87th Texas Legislature, Abbot v. Perez, Greg Abbott, preclearance, Redistricting, Supreme Court, Texas, Texas House District 90