Texas Democratic Party Statement on SCOTUS Decision

by: Katherine Haenschen

Fri Jan 20, 2012 at 03:48 PM CST

"The Supreme Court did not strike down the interim maps. They issues they had pertained to the process by which the court arrived at new maps, not necessarily the maps themselves.

While it is not clear what the final districts will look like at this point, what is clear is that the state's original maps have been found to be discriminatory in some way by every court which has examined them.

The state's maps completely ignored the demographic realities of Texas. The Supreme Court did not approve the state's maps and we don't expect they ever will."

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Make no mistake: we're in this mess because of the Republican gerrymander that reached too far in its effort to stifle minority voters' voices. As the ongoing pre-clearance trial makes clear, Texas Republicans deliberately worked to draw lines that diluted Hispanic voting power. While the population growth in our state has been predominantly minority over the past decade, Republicans refuse to recognize that reality and draw districts that let minority Texans select the candidates of their choosing.