First lawsuit filed to challenge Republican redistricting plans for Texas

Austin News Briefs - Austin American Statesman

In the first of several expected legal challenges, a Latino rights organization has filed a federal lawsuit pressing to toss out all four Texas redistricting plans, arguing that the Republican-drawn maps illegally and unconstitutionally dilute the voting strength of Latinos. Coming out of the third special session of the Legislature, the maps that set new district boundaries for members of Congress, the Texas House, the Texas Senate and the State Board of Education have not yet been signed into law. But the lawsuit, filed Monday by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, argued that court intervention is needed because Republican lawmakers drew maps that ignored robust gains in the state's Latino population.