{"id":2243266,"date":"2024-05-13T07:24:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T11:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-risks-longtime-democratic-held-seats-over-texas-redistricting-fight\/"},"modified":"2024-05-13T07:34:17","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T11:34:17","slug":"biden-risks-longtime-democratic-held-seats-over-texas-redistricting-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-risks-longtime-democratic-held-seats-over-texas-redistricting-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden jeopardizes traditional Democratic seats in Texas due to redistricting battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-risks-longtime-democratic-held-seats-over-texas-redistricting-fight%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2243266&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Biden Administration is\u2064 in \u200ba legal battle to protect Galveston\u2064 County&#8217;s only minority-majority precinct, which\u2062 could impact how the Voting\u2062 Rights Act is interpreted. The dispute involves the\u200c creation of a new map that \u2063may endanger the political standing \u2062of South Texas Democrats. The case highlights the \u200cintricate relationship between redistricting, minority representation,\u200c and legal challenges.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/biden-administration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Joe Biden<\/a>\u2018s Justice Department is fighting to save Galveston County\u2019s only minority-majority precinct in a high-stakes redistricting case that could alter how the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/voting-rights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Voting Rights Act<\/a> is interpreted and may imperil South <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/texas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Texas<\/a> Democrats \u2014 and Democrats nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>The Galveston County Commissioners Court, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/laken-hope-rileys-murder-outs-georgia-as-largely-a-sanctuary-state\/\" title=\"Georgia Exposed as Sanctuary State in Laken Hope Riley's Murder\">local governing body<\/a> that drew the new map in 2021, contends that a minority-majority cannot legally be achieved by merely creating a coalition of Hispanic and black voters. While no single racial minority group made up the majority of voters in the county\u2019s old Precinct 3, black and Hispanic voters collectively made up 58% of the precinct\u2019s population in 2020.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Galveston County Commissioner Map 1 Jan. 2021 (left) and contested Commissioner Map 2 (right).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In October 2023, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown ruled that the new commissioners court map, which removed Precinct 3\u2019s minority-majority status, violated Section 2 of the VRA, arguing the map \u201cdenies Black and Latino voters the equal opportunity to participate in the political process,\u201d according to court records.<\/p>\n<p>The map dispute has drawn the ire of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-may-charge-some-capitol-rioters-under-rico-racketeering-law\/\" title=\"DOJ May Charge Some Capitol Rioters Under RICO Racketeering Law\">civil rights groups<\/a>, the Biden Justice Department, and local residents who were disgruntled over the changes made to the plan. But one local Republican commissioner told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> that Supreme Court precedent favors the newer map, and that Biden\u2019s challenge against it could backfire heavily against Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Voting Rights Act is too important to be misused as a political weapon,\u201d Republican Galveston County Judge Mark Henry said. \u201cIt\u2019s important for the courts to recognize that it protects classes of people who are of the same race, not the same political party.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>The future of Section 2 at the heart of the Galveston County dispute<\/h2>\n<p>The dispute, known as <em>Petteway v. Galveston County<\/em>, stems from the Republican-led County Commissioners Court\u2019s decision in 2021 to remove the only black and Hispanic-dominant precinct out of the county\u2019s four precincts when it enacted its new redistricting map. Galveston County is primarily white and Republican, but black and Hispanic voters in the area lean Democratic.<\/p>\n<p>The new map dismantles Precinct 3, a primarily black and Hispanic \u201ccoalition district\u201d that has been led by Stephen Holmes, a black Democratic commissioner, for nearly 25 years. The changes have been described as \u201cdiscriminatory\u201d by plaintiffs in the case, which include NAACP branches, the League of United Latin American Citizens Council, the Texas Civil Rights Project, and the DOJ.<\/p>\n<p>Henry defends the new map and has vehemently denied plaintiffs\u2019 allegations that it undermines minority voting power.<\/p>\n<p>From Henry\u2019s perspective, the district court only ruled against the new map because Brown, an appointee of former President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Donald Trump\">Donald Trump<\/a>, was relying on outdated precedent under the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. <\/p>\n<p>The only way to draw a map in Galveston County with a majority non-white district is to \u201cmake race the exclusive priority when placing lines and to flatten all racial and cultural diversity in the County into non-whiteness,\u201d Henry told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Galveston County Commissioner Map Jan. 2021 (old map).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The 5th Circuit later ruled on Dec. 7, 2023, to pause Brown\u2019s order requiring Galveston County to implement the commissioners court\u2019s districts that maintain the prior Precinct 3 shape. Plaintiffs appealed to the Supreme Court, and the justices ruled 6-3 on Dec. 12 to leave the new districts in place. The majority of the high court justices <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/petteway-galeston-county-texas-order.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"did not explain their ruling\">did not explain their ruling<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Elena Kagan, one of three Democratic-appointed justices on the high court, was joined in dissent by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, writing that the 5th Circuit \u201cdisrupted the status quo \u2014 an election map concededly lawful under circuit precedent and nearly identical to the maps that have governed the election of Galveston County\u2019s commissioners for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the Supreme Court\u2019s 2009 <em>Bartlett v. Strickland<\/em> decision, the justices held that the Voting Rights Act only applies where minority groups have less opportunity than others to elect a candidate of choice, not when a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/actor-richard-dreyfuss-slams-woke-hollywood-inclusion-standards-they-make-me-vomit\/\" title=\"Richard Dreyfuss criticizes Hollywood's inclusion standards.\">specific minority group<\/a> needs assistance from another minority group through the political process to elect a candidate.<\/p>\n<p>Placing <em>Bartlett <\/em>in the context of Galveston County, Henry contends two distinct minority groups cannot combine to raise a VRA claim.<\/p>\n<p>The VRA was intended to remedy that type of racial discrimination, not \u201cperpetuate the sort of polarization and stereotyping the Plaintiffs rely on in our case,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<h2>What are civil rights groups saying?<\/h2>\n<p>The plaintiffs in the Galveston case argue that the commissioners court exploited the Supreme Court precedent that invalidated a law requiring federal approval for new voting maps in jurisdictions with a history of voting rights violations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMap 1 accounts for all current incumbents, and its use will maintain the status quo for voters because it is a least-change plan based on a decades-old configuration of the commissioner precincts,\u201d Hilary Harris Klein, an attorney with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice representing the activists, told the Supreme Court in the December petition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy contrast, the 2021 enacted plan that defendants desire would effectively \u2018extinguish the Black and Latino communities\u2019 voice on [the] commissioners court\u2019 and \u2018shut [them] out of the process altogether,&#8217;\u201d Klein added.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the <em>Bartlett <\/em>precedent, defenders of the new Galveston County map say the changes were made possible due to a 2013 modification to the VRA known as the Supreme Court <em>Shelby County <\/em>decision, which blocked a requirement for counties to pre-approve district map changes with the Justice Department. <\/p>\n<p>Yet the Biden administration is operating as if those requirements are still in place by joining the plaintiffs in the Galveston County case. Meanwhile, the years of litigation have forced the county to spend close to $5 million in legal fees to defend a voting map it contends is in accordance with the Supreme Court\u2019s precedent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Biden DOJ is misusing the Voting Rights Act as a weapon for the Democratic Party to bully Republican legislators,\u201d Henry said. \u201cAs politicians, it\u2019s our duty to stand up and fight for the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>The Biden DOJ could be pushing its luck for Democrats who cling to Section 2<\/h2>\n<p>Henry indicated he is confident that the new map will sustain legal scrutiny even if it leads to a battle at the Supreme Court, in part because there is a split among the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 6th Circuit and the 11th Circuit when it comes to minority-coalition Section 2 claims. The 6th Circuit has rejected them, and the 11th Circuit has authorized them.<\/p>\n<p>In November, a three-judge panel on the 5th Circuit consisting of appointees from Presidents George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan acknowledged that while it is bound by 5th Circuit precedent allowing for minority-coalition Section 2 claims, it believes prior decisions permitting such claims are \u201cwrong as a matter of law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe 5th Circuit\u2019s prior opinion on this issue did not address the question of coalitions as deeply or directly as the 6th Circuit,\u201d Henry said, indicating that the litigation spurred by Biden\u2019s DOJ could toss coalition districts into a legal gray area, which could spell a disaster for Democrats who rely on such districts.<\/p>\n<h2>5th Circuit to reconsider redistricting precedent under Voting Rights Act<\/h2>\n<p>The 5th Circuit is now poised to rehear the Galveston County map dispute before an en banc panel, meaning an argument before the circuit court\u2019s full bench of judges, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>If the court rules in favor of the defendants, it could spell trouble for Democrats because the case could ultimately make its way back to the Supreme Court for an argument on the merits. For that to happen, the losing party would have to file a petition and gain the votes of four or more justices for them to consider the case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs personnel have changed on the courts, there\u2019s been an increased appetite in revisiting some of the previous holdings of the circuit,\u201d Derek Muller, a professor of law and election law expert at Notre Dame, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/news\/houston-texas\/article\/galveston-elections-redistricting-map-ruling-18522598.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"told\">told<\/a> the <em>Houston Chronicle<\/em> in December. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSection 2 of the Voting Rights Act is obviously contentious,\u201d Muller added. \u201cAnd multiple Supreme Court decisions lately have gone multiple directions, some in favor of the plaintiffs and some in favor of the states.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In neighboring Harris County, which contains Houston, the seats of Democratic U.S. Reps. Lizzie Fletcher, Al Green, and Sheila Jackson Lee could all be affected if the Supreme Court were to adopt a standard similar to the 6th Circuit against coalition districts.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s no doubt a risky legal fight for Democrats, as coalition districts are also facing challenges in states such as Georgia, which is covered under the 11th Circuit.<\/p>\n<h2>How do recent Supreme Court rulings signal fate for Section 2? <\/h2>\n<p>The last major Section 2 dispute before the Supreme Court came down on June 8, 2023, when the justices ruled 5-4 in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/22pdf\/21-1086_1co6.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Allen v. Milligan\">Allen v. Milligan<\/a> <\/em>to maintain a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-orders-biden-admin-to-reinstate-trump-immigration-policy\/\" title=\"Supreme Court Orders Biden Admin To Reinstate Trump Immigration Policy\">lower court injunction<\/a> that required Alabama to create an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/louisiana-congressional-map-fight-tests-supreme-courts-racial-gerrymandering-rules\/\" title=\"Supreme Court's racial gerrymandering rules tested in Louisiana congressional map dispute.\">additional majority-minority district<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The majority in <em>Allen<\/em>, composed of Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and the court\u2019s three Democratic-appointed justices, upheld the lower court\u2019s ruling. They concluded that Alabama\u2019s new congressional map likely violated the VRA by diluting the voting power of black people, particularly in the \u201cBlack Belt\u201d region. The majority of justices rejected the state\u2019s argument that a race-neutral benchmark should be used in evaluating redistricting plans and emphasized the importance of considering the entirety of the circumstances under the VRA\u2019s requirements.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, the dissent, written by Justice Clarence Thomas and joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and, in part, Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett, argued against the majority\u2019s interpretation. They contended that Section 2 does not apply to redistricting and criticized the Supreme Court majority for what they saw as a hijacking of the redistricting process to allocate political power based on race. Alito also wrote a separate dissent, joined by Gorsuch, criticizing the majority\u2019s decision as inconsistent with the text of Section 2 and the principle of avoiding race-based decisions by states.<\/p>\n<p>Henry contends the problem that \u201call parties agree\u201d within the Galveston County case is that there aren\u2019t enough black or Hispanic voters to draw a district in the county that is majority black or majority Hispanic.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For the plaintiffs who say the new Galveston County map discriminated against minority voters, Henry argues that cannot be the case because the area is becoming \u201cless segregated and polarized over time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe predictable result of that trend is what we see here, it becomes impossible to draw a box that separates people into racial groups while keeping the population in each district equal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Joe Biden&#8217;s Justice Department is battling to protect Galveston County&#8217;s sole minority-majority precinct. This crucial redistricting case may redefine the Voting Rights Act interpretation, posing a threat to South Texas Democrats and Democrats nationally. The 2021 map, crafted by the Galveston County Commissioners Court, plays a pivotal role<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2633,"featured_media":2243267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/bidenthinking-1024x598.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2243266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/bidenthinking-1024x598.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2243266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2633"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2243266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2243266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2243267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2243266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2243266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2243266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}