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A high-profile lawsuit asserting Galveston County engaged in race-based gerrymandering in drafting new maps that determine the boundaries of county commission and justice of the peace precincts can proceed, a federal judge ruled late last week.
U.S District Judge Jeffrey Brown on Friday rejected the county’s motion to dismiss a combined lawsuit filed by numerous plaintiffs, including a county commissioner, constables and justices of the peace
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the county in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on March 24, 2022, asserting the county drew a new voting map with “discriminatory purpose.” The new map, which was approved Nov. 12, 2021, by a 3-1 vote, gave Republicans a majority in each of the four county precincts. Precinct 3, which the new map changed, was the only Democratic Party-leaning and majority-minority precinct in the the county and only precinct represented by a person of color, County Commissioner Stephen Holmes, who is among the plaintiffs.
“We are not surprised that the dismissal was denied and we look ahead to trial,” County Judge Mark Henry said. “We believe U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Brown is a good, fair judge.”
The map discriminates against Black and Hispanic voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act, the federal government asserts.
“Our complaint alleges that Galveston County has violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by devising a redistricting plan that dismantles the only district in which Black and Hispanic voters had the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice to the county’s governing body,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a written statement to the Daily News when the lawsuit was filed.
The precinct has been represented by Black men since 1988, first by Wayne Johnson, the county’s first Black commissioner, and his successor, Holmes. When Holmes took office in 1999, the precinct covered parts of La Marque, Texas City, Dickinson and Galveston.
Although the new map kept parts of Dickinson in the district, the boundaries were moved to include large parts of League City and Friendswood, which are predominately white and solidly Republican.
The Justice Department argues the county’s redistricting went beyond partisan gerrymandering and the precinct lines were drawn to disempower minority voters who make up 38 percent of the county’s total population.
In June of 2022, Brown ordered the Department of Justice’s lawsuit to be combined with others objecting to the map, including three local branches of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Galveston chapter of League of United Latin American Citizens, the Texas Civil Rights Project and a group of former and current county constables and justices of the peace.
Henry and the county are being represented by several attorneys of Virginia-based Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak; Paul Ready of Galveston County Legal Department Angela Olalde; Jordan Raschke Elton and Joseph R Russo Jr of Greer, Herz & Adams LLP; Joseph M Nixon of The Nixon Law Firm; and James Edwin Trainor III of the Trainor Law Firm.
The lawsuit is set to go to trial Aug. 7.
“We are preparing evidence and looking to put our best case on in the courts,” Ready said.
Representatives from the Texas Civil Rights Project, attorneys from Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak and Stephen Holmes could not be reached for comment.
