Eric Holder Statement on Supreme Court Decision to Hear Texas Gerrymandering Case

Washington, D.C. — Today, Eric H. Holder, Jr., Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC) and 82nd Attorney General of the United States, issued the following statement on the Supreme Court’s decision to hear Abbott v. Perez, a racial gerrymandering case from Texas:

“In Abbott v. Perez, the Supreme Court has another opportunity to send a message to governors and state legislatures that racial gerrymandering and intentional vote dilution is unconstitutional and diminishes the voice of minority citizens. By ending illegal gerrymandering, we can ensure that our elected officials represent the diversity of American communities. Just as the Supreme Court struck down racial gerrymanders in North Carolina and Virginia, they should uphold the district court’s decision striking down racially gerrymandered districts in Texas.”

The National Redistricting Foundation (NRF), an affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, is supporting one of the plaintiff groups in Abbott v. Perez. Marc Elias, General Counsel for NRF and chair of Perkins Coie’s political law practice, is lead counsel for the plaintiff group that is supported by the NRF. They have successfully challenged Texas’s congressional redistricting efforts from 2011 and 2013 as violating the Constitution and Voting Rights Act.

The NRF also supported the voters in Cooper v. Harris, a case in which the Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s ruling that two districts in North Carolina’s 2011 congressional maps were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. As a result of the court’s ruling, Republicans were forced to draw a new map. That new map was struck down this week by a federal court as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
###