Monday is the deadline to submit proposed fixes for Fort Worth’s state House District 90 which, according to the Supreme Court, was racially gerrymandered.
In June, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 5-4 in the case Abbott v. Perez, which was based on the argument that four state House Districts and two congressional districts were drawn in 2011, again redrawn in 2013, with the purpose of discriminating against minority voters.
Texas House District 90, which surrounds much of downtown Fort Worth and is home to approximately 160,000 people, was the only one of that bunch that was ultimately deemed to be improper by the highest court in the country.
“We hold that HD90 is an impermissible racial gerrymander,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his majority opinion. “The District Court will have to consider what if any remedy is appropriate at this time.”
In July a district court in San Antonio ruled that the boundaries for House District 90 will remain in place for the upcoming midterm election, and gave the parties involved in the case until Monday, August 6 to propose potential changes for the map beyond that point.
Texas Representative Ramon Romero, a Democrat, represents District 90 and told NBC DFW that the decision to leave the boundaries “as is” is the right one.
“So does that mean there is another primary? That there is another general?” Romero asked rhetorically, indicating that the logistics of redrawing the district’s boundaries at this point are not feasible. “[It is] very complicated, very expensive. It is not an excuse. It’s just the fact of what we would have to do. And I don’t think that’s fair to those people who have already gone through that whole campaign season.”
