AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. Justice Department has objected to pre-clearance for Texas's new Congressional districts, suggesting they might violate federal law.
In court papers filed Monday, the department said it has no problems with new maps created by the legislature for state Senate and Board of Education districts, The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman reported. But government lawyers said the maps for the state House of Representatives and for Congress might violate the Voting Rights Act.
The act, passed in 1965, requires states with a history of discrimination, including Texas, to obtain federal approval, known as pre-clearance, of changes in election districts. This year, the state submitted its new maps to a panel of three federal judges in Washington, bypassing the Justice Department.
The new map of 36 congressional districts has reduced the number of minority districts to 10 from 11 in the old map with just 32 districts, Matt Angle of the Lone Star Project, a Democratic research group, said.
"You don't have to be a math major to know blacks and Hispanics lost ground," he said. "The State of Texas again overreached."
