By Brad Brooks
(Reuters) -The NAACP and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on Tuesday sued Texas over its congressional map that was redrawn at the behest of President Donald Trump, arguing it dilutes the power of Black voters and other minorities.
The Republican-dominated Texas legislature passed the new map last week with hopes it would give Republicans five more seats in Congress. California’s legislature, dominated by Democrats, responded by passing its own new map intended to counter Texas by adding five more seats for Democrats. The California effort also has been challenged in court.
“The state of Texas is only 40 percent white, but white voters control over 73 percent of the state’s congressional seats,” Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement.
“It’s quite obvious that Texas’s effort to redistrict mid-decade, before next year’s midterm elections, is racially motivated. The state’s intent here is to reduce the members of Congress who represent Black communities, and that, in and of itself, is unconstitutional.”
Texas lawmakers have said the new map was drawn up to help Republicans, not to target minorities.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in El Paso, names Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, and Secretary of State Jane Nelson, also a Republican, as defendants, neither of whom immediately responded to a request for comment. It asks a judge to block the use of the new congressional map.
Republicans have acknowledged they believe winning more congressional seats in Texas will help the party maintain its slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s midterm elections, despite political headwinds.
More states controlled by Republicans are considering similar action, while other Democratic states are also weighing redrawing maps to counter that.
Passage of the new Texas map in the state House was delayed for two weeks after more than 50 Democratic House members staged a walkout that denied Republicans the legislative quorum needed.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado; Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese)
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