TEXAS: Court Tosses Claim Of Bias Against White Voters

Courthouse News reports:

A federal judge in Texas threw out a closely followed lawsuit Thursday accusing Dallas County of drawing voter district lines to dilute the influence of white voters. U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, wrote the plaintiffs “failed to prove” the lack of a second county commissioner district capable of electing a white Republican, their choice, is a violation of their equal protection rights.

Lead plaintiff Anne Harding, represented by Dallas-based Equal Voting Rights Institute, sued the county in 2015, claiming the commissioners court uses “naked racial politics, intentionally using its power to minimize a dissenting race’s political sway.”

The plaintiffs say candidates preferred by white voters have “almost never” won a countywide general election since 2004 due to the non-white majority voting as a bloc for their candidates with districts drawn to allegedly “cram” as many racial minorities as possible into one district.

The Equal Voting Rights Institute, you’ll be shocked to learn, is a right wing outfit. From their mission statement:

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was the signature achievement of the Civil Rights Movement, a single, bold act that realized the promises of the Constitution’s 14th and 15th Amendments. But 50 years have passed since the VRA became law. The VRA’s roots lay in the struggle to make real the Constitutional promise of equal protection for every American. But some have concluded that the Courts have used the VRA to create racial entitlements for a new slate of preferred groups. Those who crafted the VRA wanted no such thing.

The group’s executive director is Republican Dan Morenoff (photo above), who made a failed run for the Texas House in 2016 on a platform of “border security” and gun rights.