District Court, Splitting 2-1, Finds Texas Congressional Districts Violate VRA

[DrScholl]

Most of Nueces would end up in TX-34, which is where it should be, since it has previously been in a district with Brownsville. Farenthold would still have a seat, so that isn't a change. TX-35 is the issue, because if it condenses into Travis County, that means that another Bexar County anchored seat has to be drawn. That is where all the questions about change come in.

[DrScholl]

Most of Nueces would end up in TX-34, which is where it should be, since it has previously been in a district with Brownsville. Farenthold would still have a seat, so that isn't a change. TX-35 is the issue, because if it condenses into Travis County, that means that another Bexar County anchored seat has to be drawn. That is where all the questions about change come in.

Why should Corpus Christ be in the same district as Brownsville?

The name of the city is Corpus Christi, not Corpus Christ. It would make for a compact district that complies with the VRA fairly easily.

[DrScholl]

There are plenty of large land area districts that have stretches of highway where there is nothing in between and it's unavoidable in many cases. With that said, arguing about this is a moot point, because the VRA districts are going to be mandated by law. End of debate.

[DrScholl]

Marchant and Sessions probably end up in the same district, with prioritization given to Sessions due to seniority (assuming the legislature concedes a seat in the area).

[DrScholl]

The court isn't going to order a map that doesn't comply with the VRA and not even the legislature would bother drawing that one, but even if they did draw a singular district in Hidalgo County, there would still be two more border districts. Besides, if you apply the compactness principle, it would have to apply to the rest of the state and you couldn't justify Travis County being in 5 different districts.