Our View: The Supreme Court should have blocked the Texas GOP redistricting plan.

Democrats suffered a crippling defeat last Friday when the Supreme Court refused to block a hard-fought Republican redistricting plan in Texas in the case of Jackson v. Perry. The new map could cost Democrats as many as six seats in an already Republican-controlled Congress.
The redistricting will inevitably weaken minority voting strength. Politically speaking, the lines have been drawn in just the right places to give Republicans the confidence to expect a seizure of 22 of Texas's 32 seats in Congress. The districts were drawn and approved by the Texas Legislature, which is also controlled by Republicans.

This new plan will have a likely troublesome effect on the upcoming Presidential election for Democrats.

The Supreme Court's decision is evidence of the negative affect a predominately conservative Court will have on minority populations. The Court conveniently declined to rule on the 'wisdom" of Texas's new redistricting plan.

We believe the Court has failed minorities by refusing to block this plan.

This type of redistricting is known in black politics as "gerrymandering" and it is nothing new. This practice has been going on since blacks first received the right to vote as a means of suppressing African-American voting power. The plan is to separate districts by race, class, and any other social group that can be sectioned off to best fit a specific political goal. Who do you think gets blocked out?

We as African-American voters need to make this an issue so that it is not continuously accepted as okay. This is an important issue that we should lobby and write to our Congress members about. The practice of redrawing district lines could becomes even more widespread, even outside of the state of Texas.

If we don't fight for our voting rights, no one will.