Appeals court: Separate, distinct minority groups can’t join together to claim vote dilution

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Distinct minority groups cannot join together in coalitions to claim their votes are diluted in redistricting cases under the Voting Rights Act, a divided federal appeals court ruled Thursday, acknowledging that it was reversing years of its own precedent.

At issue was a redistricting case in Galveston County, Texas, where black and Latino groups had joined to challenge district maps drawn by the county commission. A federal district judge had rejected the maps, saying they diluted minority strength. A three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals initially upheld the decision before the full court decided to reconsider the issue, resulting in Thursday’s 12-6 decision.

Judge Edith Jones, writing for the majority, said such challenges by minority coalitions “do not comport” with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and are not supported by Supreme Court precedent The decision reverses a 1988 5th Circuit decision and is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court.

“Nowhere does Section 2 indicate that two minority groups may combine forces to pursue a vote dilution claim,” Jones, nominated to the court by former President Ronald Reagan, wrote. “On the contrary, the statute identifies the subject of a vote dilution claim as ‘a class,’ in the singular, not the plural.”