Contact: press@lawyerscommittee.org
The State of Texas filed a request for the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a stay that would pause an important federal court ruling that blocked the state’s racially gerrymandered congressional map from going into effect. The lower court ordered that the upcoming 2026 congressional elections must proceed under a prior map, rather than the 2025 map, which would have further stripped political power from Black voters and other voters of color.
Statement of Damon T. Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:
“Racial gerrymandering in redistricting is often done behind the scenes in ways designed to make the intent less than obvious. But here, Texas said the quiet part out loud, brazenly targeting Black and Brown communities, using race as the predominant factor, and dismantling majority-minority congressional districts as the means to gain partisan advantage. Now, a three-judge federal court has agreed that there is compelling evidence that Texas’ 2025 redistricting map was not just a political power-grab, but was a racially gerrymandered scheme that violated the Constitution.
“But Texas refuses to abandon this discrimination. The state is now seeking a stay from the Supreme Court, hoping that it will allow the racially discriminatory maps to govern the upcoming 2026 Congressional elections. The Supreme Court must not allow that to happen.
“The Texas NAACP and the communities we represent in this case are not asking for special treatment. They are demanding what our Constitution promises: fair representation and an equal chance to have a say in who represents them. When elected officials intentionally redraw maps along racial lines precisely to weaken that power, they are not just playing hardball politics, they are undermining the basic premise of democracy.
“We urge the Supreme Court to do what the majority of the three-judge lower court did: look hard at the facts, understand the context, and allow justice to be served by blocking a racially discriminatory redistricting process from distorting the electoral process. Whatever happens next, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law will continue to stand with Black voters and other voters of color in Texas and across the country.”
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About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law: Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to mobilize the nation’s leading lawyers as agents for change in the Civil Rights Movement. Today, the Lawyers’ Committee uses legal advocacy to achieve racial justice, fighting inside and outside the courts to ensure that Black people and other people of color have the voice, opportunity, and power to make the promises of our democracy real. The Lawyers’ Committee implements its mission and objectives by marshaling the pro bono resources of the bar for litigation, public policy, advocacy and other forms of service by lawyers to the cause of civil rights. The Lawyers’ Committee convenes the national, nonpartisan Election Protection Coalition, which administers the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline.
