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Legal experts tell Texas committee DOJ letter misreads law and risks prompting unlawful, race‑based redraws
Summary
Two law experts at the July 24 hearing said the Justice Department’s July 7 letter mischaracterizes coalition districts and could create constitutional risk if the state redraws districts by focusing on racial composition rather than following Section 2 standards.
Two legal experts told the House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting on July 24 that a Justice Department letter urging the state to correct certain districts was legally flawed and could itself prompt an unlawful race‑based redraw.
Law professor Ellen Katz testified that the July 7 DOJ letter’s suggestion that “coalition” districts violate the Voting Rights Act is incorrect. Katz told the committee that the Fifth Circuit’s recent Pettaway decision and U.S. Supreme Court precedent do not make existing coalition or majority‑minority districts automatically unlawful and that instructing the state to “dismantle” districts based solely on racial composition risks constitutional problems.
“What's critical here,”…
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