司法部长梅里克·加兰周一宣布，司法部正就德克萨斯州新划分的国会和州立法机构地图起诉该州。

加兰说，得克萨斯州绘制剥夺非裔美国人和拉丁裔选民选举权的选区划分图，这违反了选举权法案教。

加兰在周一的新闻发布会上说:“我们今天提交的投诉声称，德克萨斯州违反了第二节，制定了重新划分选区的计划，剥夺或剥夺了拉丁裔和黑人选民因其种族、肤色或语言少数群体成员身份而投票的权利。“该部门的职业投票法专家评估了得克萨斯州新的选区划分计划，确定其中包括违反选举权法案的选区。”

这标志着拜登司法部第三次起诉该州，也是第二次就选举相关事宜提起诉讼。

重划选区的过程决定了社区在国会中的代表方式。在重划选区的过程中，法律要求各州划出居民人数大致相同的选区，以确保平等的代表性。自2013年最高法院拆除了选举权法案的一部分以解决歧视性地图以来，今年是第一次重新划分选区。

德克萨斯州州长格雷格·艾伯特(Greg Abbott)是一名共和党人，他最近根据2020年人口普查将2021年的重新划分地图签署为法律，这使该州又获得了两个国会席位。

助理司法部长瓦妮塔·古普塔(Vanita Gupta)表示，该州少数民族人口的增长在重新划分的地图中没有体现出来，几个地区“被带有歧视性的意图所划分。”

该州还因其重新划分选区的过程而受到批评。

“得克萨斯州2021年的重新划分计划是通过仓促的程序制定的，公众发表意见的机会很少，没有任何专家证词，也完全无视得克萨斯州过去十年来大量的少数民族人口增长，”古普塔说，这反映了诉讼中的一项主张，该主张指责特别会议的“压缩时间表”，该会议从开始到重新划分立法签署仅一个多月。

“由于特别会议，国会重新划分选区的过程被缩短了。从最初提案的公布到会议委员会地图的最终通过，仅仅过去了三周，”诉讼称。

该诉讼援引得克萨斯州第23国会选区作为“有意”重组的例子，以“消除拉丁裔的选举机会。”

DOJ还声称，选区重新划分委员会在达拉斯/沃斯堡地区和哈里斯县也做了同样的事情，哈里斯县是美国最大的城市之一休斯顿的所在地。

安娜·赚钱者/盖蒂图像公司

司法部长梅里克·b·加兰在司法部的新闻发布会上发言.

该诉讼称:“国会制定的计划有意歧视DFW的少数族裔选民，将快速变化的社区从以DFW为基础的地区中剔除，而是通过一条狭窄的地带将这些社区连接到几个盎格鲁人聚居的县。”。

根据诉讼中包含的人口普查数据，2010年至2020年间，德克萨斯州的拉丁裔人口增长了近50%，非裔美国人增长了16%。

该诉讼在得克萨斯州西区提起，还指控得克萨斯州在州一级非法重新划分了一些地区。

“得克萨斯州还通过操纵或彻底取消拉丁裔社区此前选举其首选候选人的选区，在州众议院计划中取消了拉丁裔的选举机会。在圣安东尼奥地区和南得克萨斯州，得克萨斯州用高投票率的盎格鲁选民取代了众议院118区和31区的拉丁裔选民，从而消除了少数族裔的选举机会，”诉讼称。

“在埃尔帕索和西得克萨斯州，该州完全取消了一个拉丁裔机会区，将拉丁裔占公民投票年龄人口多数的地区从6个减少到5个，方法是人口过剩，将拉丁裔占多数的地区和附近人口不足的盎格鲁人占多数的地区打包。”

古普塔说，得克萨斯州的“计划将减少得克萨斯州拉丁裔和黑人选民选举他们喜欢的代表的机会”。

针对DOJ的诉讼，得克萨斯州众议院民主党人强调了他们在重新划分选区过程中争论的一点——有色人种(其中大多数是拉丁裔)对该州的人口增长做出了贡献，但在重新划分选区的变化下，他们在投票箱中的权力将会减少。

DOJ采取这一举措之前，得克萨斯州民主党人花了几个月时间向拜登政府施压，要求其在保护投票权方面发挥更大作用，因为得克萨斯州共和党人今年夏天成功修订了该州的投票法。

参议院规则委员会主席艾米·克洛布查尔说，DOJ在得克萨斯州的诉讼“强调”了立法投票权改革的必要性。

克洛布查尔说:“这场诉讼强调了通过《投票自由法》的重要性，该法案旨在结束歧视性的选区划分，并设定基本的国家标准，以确保所有美国人都能在我们的民主制度中发出自己的声音，无论他们居住在哪个州或邮政编码。

今年早些时候，克洛布查尔领导参议院民主党多次努力通过投票改革。所有这些努力都在共和党阻挠者手中失败了。

与此同时，参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)周一早些时候在一封亲爱的同事信中表示，参议院打算在年底前解决投票权问题。

自1965年国会通过选举权法案法案以来，德州每十年都会面临重新划分选区的法律挑战。

美国司法部要求联邦法院阻止得克萨斯州在当前地图下进行选举，并命令得克萨斯州实施新的国会和州地图。

DOJ sues Texas over redistricting, saying the new maps discriminate

The Justice Department is suing the state of Texas over its newly redistricted congressional and state legislature maps, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Monday.

Garland said Texas violated the Voting Rights Act by drawing redistricting maps that disenfranchise African American and Latino voters.

"The complaint we filed today alleges that Texas has violated section two by creating redistricting plans that deny or abridge the rights of Latino and Black voters to vote on account of their race, color or membership in a language minority group," Garland said at a press conference Monday. "The department's career voting law experts have assessed Texas's new redistricting plans and determine that they include districts that violate the Voting Rights Act."

It marks the third time the Biden Justice Department has sued the state and the second time it has sued over an election-related matter.

The redistricting process, in which states are legally required to draw districts with roughly the same number of residents to ensure equal representation, determines how communities are represented in Congress. This year is the first time redistricting will take place since the Supreme Court gutted a part of the Voting Rights Act addressing discriminatory maps in 2013.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, recently signed the 2021 redistricting maps into law based on the 2020 Census, which gave the state two more congressional seats.

Vanita Gupta, the associate attorney general, said growth in the state's minority populations was not represented in the redistricting maps and that several districts "were drawn with discriminatory intent."

The state was also criticized for its redistricting process.

"Texas' 2021 redistricting plans were enacted through a rushed process with minimal opportunity for public comment, without any expert testimony and with an overall disregard for the massive minority population growth in Texas over the last decade," Gupta said, reflecting one of the claims in the suit that blamed the "compressed timeline" of a special session that spanned just over a month between when it began and when redistricting legislation was signed.

"The Congressional redistricting process was truncated because of the special session. Only three weeks passed between the unveiling of the initial proposal and the final passage of the conference committee map," the suit says.

The suit cites Texas Congressional District 23 as an example of "intentionally" reconfiguration to "eliminate a Latino electoral opportunity."

The DOJ also alleges the redistricting committee did the same in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and in Harris County, which is home to Houston -- one of the biggest cities in the country.

"The enacted Congressional plan intentionally discriminates against minority voters in DFW by excising rapidly changing communities from DFW-based districts and attaching them instead through a narrow strip to several heavily Anglo counties," the suit says.

According to Census data included in the lawsuit, Texas' Latino population grew by almost 50%, and the African American population grew to 16% between 2010 and 2020.

The lawsuit, filed in the Western District of Texas, also alleges that Texas illegally redistricted some districts on the state level.

"Texas also eliminated Latino electoral opportunities in the State House plan through manipulation or outright elimination of districts where Latino communities previously had elected their preferred candidates. In the San Antonio region and in South Texas, Texas replaced Latinos in House Districts 118 and 31 with high-turnout Anglo voters, eliminating minority electoral opportunities," the lawsuit says.

"And in El Paso and West Texas, the State eliminated a Latino opportunity district entirely -- reducing the number of districts in which Latinos make up a citizen voting-age population majority from six to five -- by overpopulating and packing majority-Latino districts and under-populating nearby majority-Anglo districts."

Texas's "plans will diminish the opportunities for Latino and black voters in Texas to elect their preferred representatives," Gupta said.

In response to the DOJ's lawsuit, Texas House Democrats are highlighting the point they argued during the redistricting process -- that people of color, a majority of whom are Latino, contributed to the state's population growth but will have diminished power at the ballot box under the redistricting changes.

The move by the DOJ also comes after Texas Democrats spent months pressuring the Biden administration to take a bigger role in protecting voting rights as Texas Republicans successfully revised the state's voting laws over the summer.

Senate Rules committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar said the DOJ lawsuit in Texas "underscores" the need for legislative voting rights reform.

"This lawsuit underscores the importance of passing the Freedom to Vote Act to put an end to discriminatory redistricting and set basic national standards to make sure all Americans can make their voices heard in our democracy, regardless of what state or zip code they live in," Klobuchar said.

Klobuchar led multiple Senate Democratic efforts to pass voting reform earlier this year. All of those efforts failed at the hands of GOP filibusters.

This comes as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a dear colleague letter earlier Monday, said the Senate intends to address voting rights before the end of the year.

Texas has faced legal challenges over redistricting in every decade since Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Justice Department is asking a federal court to stop Texas from conducting elections under the current map and to order Texas to implement new congressional and state maps.