Fifth Circuit Ruling on Coalition Districts Triggers Texas Redistricting, California's Proposition 50 Faces Constitutional Scrutiny

Houston, TX – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit's en banc ruling on August 1, 2024, in Petteway v. Galveston County, which declared "coalition minority districts" unconstitutional under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, has significantly reshaped the redistricting landscape in Texas and drawn parallels to an ongoing controversy in California. This landmark decision overturned decades of precedent, asserting that Section 2 does not permit the aggregation of different minority groups to form a majority-minority district.

The ruling stemmed from a 2022 lawsuit filed by the Biden Department of Justice against Galveston County Commissioners. The DOJ alleged that Galveston County's redistricting plan diluted the votes of Black and Latino residents by failing to create a coalition minority district. However, the Fifth Circuit's decision reversed a lower court's ruling, concluding that the statutory language of Section 2 refers to "a class" in the singular, not the plural, thus disallowing claims based on combined minority groups.

Following this legal clarification, on July 7, 2025, the Department of Justice under President Trump reportedly sent a letter to Texas officials. This letter highlighted the Fifth Circuit's order, indicating that four of Texas's existing congressional districts, drawn in 2021 as coalition minority districts, were now unconstitutional. Mark Meuser, a prominent legal figure, stated in a recent social media post, "Texas made a prudent choice to redraw the congressional districts so as to save their taxpayers the expense of litigating the losing case of defending minority coalition districts." He further clarified that "Texas had to redraw the lines because Biden sued Galveston County and the law was clarified that coalition minority districts were unconstitutional."

Meanwhile, California is grappling with its own redistricting debate surrounding Proposition 50, which is slated for a November 4th vote. Meuser contends that the California legislature "had to violate the California Constitution multiple times" to place Proposition 50 on the ballot. He claims to have been involved in two lawsuits before the California Supreme Court seeking to halt the proposition, but the court "refused to require the California legislature to defend their unconstitutional acts and simply dismissed the Writ without even deciding the merits of the matter." Meuser is preparing another lawsuit and urges California voters to "stand up against the unconstitutional actions of Gavin Newsom and the California legislature by voting No on November 4th to Proposition 50."