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Legal experts and hundreds of Texans tell Senate panel: don’t redraw maps mid‑decade
Summary
Legal scholars, civil‑rights leaders and scores of residents urged the Texas Senate panel to reject mid‑decade redistricting. University law professor Ellen Katz and Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe argued the DOJ letter misreads precedent and that dismantling effective coalition or majority‑minority districts could itself be unlawful.
Legal experts and community leaders who testified at the July 25 hearing told the Senate special committee that mid‑decade redistricting — driven by a July 7 Justice Department letter flagging four districts — risks illegal and racially discriminatory conduct and would undermine communities’ representation.
Ellen Katz, a law professor who said she was testifying in her personal capacity, told the committee the July 7 DOJ letter “asserts that the districts violate the Voting Rights Act. They don't,” and that the letter’s instructions would “amount to intentional race‑based discrimination.” Katz summarized the legal issue by telling the committee that if Texas were to follow the DOJ letter’s directive to redraw districts to alter their racial composition, “Were Texas to do it would be illegal.”
Texas NAACP…
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