Reversing decades of precedent, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in a Texas case that different minority groups cannot jointly claim that their votes have been diluted.

This court is a Republican-majority appeals court

  • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
    24·
    4 months ago

    The case involved districts for county commissioners in Galveston County, Texas, a community of about 350,000 people, where the last round of redistricting redrew a district in which Black and Hispanic voters together made up a majority of voters. The redrawn boundaries reduced their combined share of the district’s electorate to 38 percent, and a lawsuit claimed that doing so violated Section Two of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits drawing maps that dilute minority voting power.

    A lower court and the three-judge appellate panel both ruled that the new map was a clear violation of the law.

    “Yeah, they broke the law by gerry-mandering your district in order to dilute your voting power…”

    But the full Fifth Circuit disagreed, saying that the law does not explicitly allow voters from more than one minority group to “combine forces” to claim their votes were diluted.

    “…but you both complained about it at the same time and we’ve decided that means we can ignore you because magic legal words that totally aren’t racist.”

    The 12 judges in the majority were all appointed by Republican presidents.

    Curb Your Enthusiasm music begins

    • Rice_Daddy@lemmy.world
      2·
      3 months ago

      Does this mean that if you discriminate minorities as a groups, there’s no recourse? They probably can point to how the figures as they have, and they can’t submit a joint case.