AG vows to appeal
Texas' attorney general is vowing to appeal a federal court ruling Tuesday that blocks the state's new district lines from taking effect before November's presidential election.
Attorney General Greg Abbott says his office will immediately take steps to appeal what he calls a 'flawed decision' to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a statement, Abbott argued the decision "extends the Voting Rights Act beyond the limits intended by Congress and beyond the boundaries imposed by the Constitution."
The three-judge panel said Texas' new district lines discriminate against minorities. Houston attorney Chad Dunn was behind the court challenge, he says the court essentially called out the Republican-led state Legislature as being racist when drawing up the new lines.
"They would go down into these individual blocks and they would pick out Hispanics, and the Anglo and African-Americans and split them into different districts," says Dunn. "Or, they would pack them all into one district so they wouldn't make a difference in surrounding districts."
"This court found in a 3-0 unanimous opinion that the Legislature set out to draw discriminatory redistricting plans," he says. "In other words, the goal from the start was to find certain Texans and deprive them of their right to vote."
