The current state of mid-decade redistricting highlights the importance of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), and the harm created by the demise of Section 5 of the VRA in Shelby County v. Holder. 

If Section 5 of the VRA had still been in place, then Texas would not have been able to implement its new Congressional maps without approval from either a federal district court  U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia or the U.S. Attorney General. 

However, without the guardrails created by Section 5, a state can create a new plan and implement that plan. That new plan can only be challenged after it has been signed by the governor. Challengers then have to demonstrate the illegality of the plan, either by showing that it was a racial gerrymander or, using some state law, a partisan gerrymander. 

This post concludes my series on redistricting. I hope you learned something new from this content! Check out more of my discussion on this topic with civil rights attorney Angela Groves in this video. 

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