When I heard that a lawsuit filed against Tarrant County by eight Blacks and Latinos was dismissed, my first reaction was the S** word. Their lawsuit was filed in federal court, but it was much like the LULAC Council 4568 and LWV filed in a Texas court.
They decided to surrender after an appeals court rejected the group’s request for a temporary injunction on the county’s new maps. Their claim was that the new maps disenfranchise minority voters in Tarrant County.
Which brings me to LULAC Council 4568 and Janet Mattern, president of LWV VS Tarrant County. A couple of weeks ago, Ms. Mattern and I attended a hearing at the 348th District Court presided over by Judge Megan Fahey. The county filed the request to dismiss our case against the county; our group was represented by attorneys from the Texas Civil Rights Project.
Our claim was that the new maps were illegally approved behind closed doors and already decided before they were presented. And those illegal maps would unfairly diminish the voting power of Black and Latino voters in Tarrant County. Which does not appear to matter in Tarrant County and all of Texas. Our lawsuit was dismissed this week, which is a hard blow but not surprising.
Now the Texas lawsuit for the same reason: racially manipulated maps. Whose fate must now be decided in the Supreme Court. There was a brief celebration when a federal court barred Texas from using the new maps in the 2026 election. But it didn’t last long, as Texas appealed to the Supreme Court and Justice Alito granted a pause to the federal court’s ruling.
Was this surprising? No, however, the deadline to apply for the 2026 election is December 8, and as I write this, many were left in limbo. This is because you can’t commit to running in a district unless you know what that district is.
As I was quoted in another post: “This illegal redistricting scheme is an attack on our communities’ ability to vote for representatives who know and understand our needs.” This must continue to be challenged both in court and in the streets! We must take up the fight again and together go on the offensive against those who want to take us back 50 years or more. We must all refuse to go back.
By A. Govea
